Would you buy a holiday home and sacrifice holidays abroad?

[WhereIsTheSaladDoris]

Definitely not a stealth boost but I’m in conflict right now in what to do. I can’t talk to family / friends due to their personal situations and it would be unwise and unfair.

We’ve been saving for years, for a “rainy day” and our investments mean we now have enough to purchase a decent caravan or put a deposit down in an apartment.

DH wants to buy a place and I’d prefer that over a caravan. If we do that, it’s a commitment.

We wouldn’t rent out (perhaps to family/close friends) and would have all holidays in that location (looking at Devon). It would mean no holidays abroad (normally once a year) but more time spent in that location (one of us in education so half term and summer holidays could be at the holiday place). The area we like we know fairly well.

These are the types of places we’re looking at:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-72298794.html

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-71549115.html listed building so I’m a bit put off

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-82926667.html

Then in the next breath, the panic sets in and I think about risk of being out of a job / how others are less fortunate to not even have one house let alone too (guilt) / the pressure to keep a second home.

Anyone made a decision like this and regretted it? Do the benefits outweigh the potential risks?

You could join a home swap website.

I’m a member of Home Exchange. www.homeexchange.com/

I bought a small flat as a second home last year, and this was my first year with Home Exchange. You can do straightforward swaps - you go to their home and they come to yours - or use Guest Points. You get so many Points when you sign up, and your home is worth so many points per night. You get Points when you host, and spend them to stay elsewhere.

Obviously this hasn’t been the best year for me, but I had planned to stay in Malta using Guest Points, and in Poland doing a reciprocal exchange. I now have loads of Points as a couple from abroad were in my flat for a lengthy stay this summer to care for elderly relatives in the UK.

My plan is to arrange exchanges in the UK until travel restrictions ease up.

My ILs have a holiday home and honestly, I hate it and MIL has admitted to me she hates it too. A second home means every trip involves all sorts of maintenance work, plus cooking, cleaning, and the time to “close” the house when you leave. Sometimes you even have to travel just to deal with a maintenance issue. Add in that I know what they are spending on the home each year and it would easily cover them, the kids and grandkids for an equivalent number of days a year at one of the nice resorts nearby. For the same money they could have a family trip without all the effort.

Just to add some more comments about having a second home.

Mine had been on the market for 2 years without any interest before I bought it, so I don’t feel that I’m taking a home from anyone local.

It’s less than 20 miles from where I live and work, but in a beautiful coastal location. I currently live in a tied house, so this is my own space, and hopefully I’ll retire there. Because it’s so close, my plan is to spend one or two nights there every week, and I’m close at hand if any problems or even if I just fancy going for a quiet potter about in my bolt-hole!

I wouldn’t, on the basis that you’ll need to pay for running costs all year round regardless of how much you use it.

It can be more cost effective to rent someone else’s place when you want to be away, plus then you’re not tied to going to the same place.

It’s a bit like buying a boat. You might as well stand in the shower whilst throwing away fifty pound notes.

Thanks for the responses. Lots to think about but nothing raised that I hadn’t already considered.

I suppose the whole wasting money point, we know it would be used at least 13 weeks of the year just by us plus weekends. If we went on holiday 13 weeks of the year, paying the prices you pay in Devon to holiday in an apartment or cottage, it would be £1k+ a week (just as a low estimate, it is more than that in the summer) that’s £13k we’d potentially be wasting on going to someone else’s place, which isn’t quite ticking our boxes.

It may not be for some, but Devon is our favourite place. We love it down there and have travelled a fair few places, but still manage to come back to Devon and have a lovely time. Horses for courses on the location I suppose as it’s unique to us, but I appreciate the view point in what we should consider eg. garden, how far from where we live etc

But you wouldn't use it 13 weeks a year! If you were able to spend 13 weeks a year on holiday you'd be doing that now.

Do you have dcs? They'll want to spend some of their holidays in their current home near friends. You might want to spend time in your own home in the school hols - particularly as you have elderly parents nearby. Presumably you don't both have 13 weeks holiday a year? Would you leave your current house empty for five weeks every summer?

We have been debating it for some time too
Also love Devon but don’t want to be committed to same place to expense of all other opportunities

Caravan is a no for me you only get to keep the van on site for certain amount of time and very little to show for your money also £5k site fees a year whereas paying a mortgage in a property that will be yours in the end is a much better investment

I wouldn't personally as I like to visit new places and wouldn't want to give up on holidaying abroad, discovering more of the world, trying different foods, experiencing hot dry consistent weather, etc.

I wouldn't want my holidays restricted to one area in the U.K. personally - I don't trust our weather enough to start with!

Not sure there is any one place, home or abroad, that I would want to have every single future holiday.

Please don’t. I live near the area you are looking and in the winter all the shops shut, it’s like a ghost town because it’s 90% abandoned. It’s an incredibly deprived area and second home owners don’t help. If you want to live somewhere, live there. If you want to go on holiday there, do that.

I wouldn’t - these flats don’t even look that nice. Wouldn’t you get bored to holiday at the same place every single holiday you have every single year?
Never going abroad again wouldn’t appeal to me. And definitely wouldn’t want to go to the same place several times a year.
At least if you also rent it out, you could afford holidays abroad too.

If I had loads of money I’d definitely have a holiday home in Cornwall, unfortunately I don’t! My mum has a holiday cottage though and they rarely stayed in it, needing to get rental money in and there are a lot of additional outgoings - utilities, council tax, cleaning, laundry etc. I definitely think she’d get more doing long term lets for locals.
However, if you just want it just for you and you really will use it that much and you can afford it, you could give it a go.

I asked someone once who runs a caravan park and she said caravans depreciate in value quicker than a car

@AdriannaP neither of us would get bored. We love it there and have been on holiday there one way or another once a year for over 15 years.

@ HandsomeMaid it is a ghost town in the winter is it. We did a mini break between Xmas and new year last year but was actually surprised how much was open still (expecting places to be closed). I quite like it when it’s quiet though.

@titchy

But you wouldn't use it 13 weeks a year! If you were able to spend 13 weeks a year on holiday you'd be doing that now.

Do you have dcs? They'll want to spend some of their holidays in their current home near friends. You might want to spend time in your own home in the school hols - particularly as you have elderly parents nearby. Presumably you don't both have 13 weeks holiday a year? Would you leave your current house empty for five weeks every summer?

I believe we would use it for that long as one of us is in education and the other one has a flexible role. But I do get your point, emergencies may come up and we won’t be able to go (although I haven’t said that elderly parents are nearby, just that they’re alive).

I suppose we’re one of those families that don’t think driving half way across the country as a big thing (I have family who won’t leave our city or think they’ve emigrated by travelling 40 miles!) so in an emergency, we’d be back if we needed to be.

DH has this idea that if DD wanted her friends, she could have a friend come down for the week. A little out there, but I could visualise it working.

If you would use it loads then go for it. My parents had 2 holiday homes when we were growing up (both abroad). One was a farmhouse with lots of space & one was an apartment near the beach. We went to either/or virtually every holiday but my mum didn't work so could take the time off. No mortgage & no interest in renting them out which equalled less hassle.

Doesn't appeal to me at all, there are so many places in the world I want to see.
How old are your dc? I would caution that as they get into teenage years they won't want to go away for all their school holidays. They'll want to be at home where their friends are and they have their bedrooms and all their stuff.

I wouldn't, for all the reasons that zafferana has stated. Also, I would get bored going back to the same place every year.

We already have a second home in a nice part of the country (late MIL's house that we are trying to sell) and have been backwards and forwards to this house for over thirty years. The hassle of keeping the garden tidy, repairs, keeping the oil fired central heating boiler topped up, council tax and other general maintenance has put us off ever owning a second home again.

I am just bored with going back there now. We don't feel that we have to go abroad for a holiday, and have had some fabulous holidays in the UK. We just want to explore more new places.

@CurlyhairedAssassin

We’ve had the same thoughts after an inheritance including the having to stick to school holidays. It’s usually after a nice break away somewhere where you think “wouldn’t it be lovely to live here eventually when we retire, and come for holidays before that.”

And then we think about everything that people have already said. My main one is that I wouldn’t want to be tied to one place that is a long journey away, it’s not like you can just nip there for the weekend for lots of places.

We’ve just come back from Dorset for the first time after thinking we preferred Cornwall/Devon over anywhere else. And now we think we like Dorset best and I think I could live there too! There are so many lovely places to visit so why tie yourself down to one place with all the hassle that home ownership brings.

For us we both work FT and can just about keep on top of our own house with weekends spent catching up in housework and gardening and food shopping so it’s not as if we could even use a static caravan somewhere each weekend an hour away as our weekends are too busy. Then there are site fees for those.....

The idea of it is very appealing. But the reality for ordinary people is very different. All our holiday homes we’e rented have been owned by wealthy people who have had management companies and housekeepers dealing with the hassle of them.

All of this resonates for me.

If I had a substantial amount of money to burn my dream is to have a static caravan near the coast that I could use as a 'bolt hole' for weekends and during the holidays. I still want to have foreign holidays though and city breaks.

Therefore the reality is that it might get used once a month when the DC don't have sport, parties, friends that they want to do things with. As they get older the appeal of being away all weekend is reduces.

Apartment. Caravans loose value straight away. X

Personally, because I love to travel (abroad but also the UK - we camp in the UK) being tied to one holiday destination wouldn't work.

If you went down the caravan route (I assume you meant static? I mean tourer) imagine how much of the UK you could see.

I wouldn’t. Devon really suffers from second home owners. It isn’t just the buying a property that then means someone who wants to live there cannot or the driving up of prices, it is more the lack of investment in the area. Someone there 13 weeks a year (which I think is an optimistic estimate), doesn’t buy locally year round and have the same vested interest as someone whose home is there.

So morally, no.

Even if I had the money I would be too concerned about the impact of second home owners to ever buy a holiday home that wasn't specifically built as a holiday home.

In your position I would buy a decent campervan instead. If all you could afford in your preferred town is a poky little flat, then I don't think it's a good idea. My PiL had a holiday home by the coast and honestly it was more trouble than it was worth with council tax, maintenance etc. If you were buying a decent sized place with a view to perhaps retiring there one day that would be different I suppose, but I also agree with the pp who raised the ethics of buying a second home that would stand empty for much of the year.

@LordOftheRingz

No, because I disagree with them on principle. People only need one home.

Agree 100%.

For the cost of a 15% deposit on one of those properties, you could join www.hpb.co.uk

There are sites across the UK and Europe that you can book using the points you gain on joining (necessary in summer school holidays) but you can also often book holidays points free during Easter hols and other off peak times or short notice.

You pay a user charge each holiday you book, but this is a fraction of the cost of renting a place in school holidays, plus you know it’s a great standard of accommodation with other facilities like swimming pool.

They have been fantastic during lockdown regarding refunds and looking after their employees.