second home inspiration

[cheshirecat777]

hi we can buy a second home upto £350/75k it would need 3 bedrooms.

where wld you buy - we are thinking
not hugely rural
preference for a house not an apartment.
resorts or towns or just outside of resorts
or even london/borders.
south of england

any ideas or inspiration to give

sorry just to add we want a second home but although a beach style place is fine we might consider other places including those with decent proximity to london

Where do you live
How often do you plan to use it
Do you plan to rent it out

we live in the midlands would use it maybe every few months or more regularly.

thanks!

Dorset-
Stunning beaches and loads to do

OvertheRainbow Anywhere specific in Dorset you cab recommend?

belindabelle we might want to rent it out but not 100% essential but yes would prefer to

Bournemouth is fabulous, beautiful beaches, near sand banks. Loads of things to do/see for all ages

Wrt location my advice would be that the place in itself is less of an issue than the following factors if you are planning to to use it regularly:

• ease of travel. My DU/DA had a beautiful holiday home but eventually sold because although as the crow flies it wasn't that far away the roads were awful and it ended up being a 7hr round trip - making "spontaneous" weekend visits after work on a Friday a far less appealing prospect than had they chosen a location nearer.

• facilities. As above their location was idyllic but very rural meaning very few local shops. The upshot meant being very organised before they went (supermarket shop etc) or a detour en-route to buy provisions. I'm not saying you need to be in a town, but as a minimum a large village with a decent shop and a pub that serves good food for when you don't want to cook.

• if you want a house you also don't want a large garden otherwise you'll spend all your time "on holiday" catching up on weeks of maintenance. Whatever you buy "invest" in a low maintenance garden.

• locations that work well not just for you, but for renting also are not always in tourist hotspots, but places that provide easy access to a number of them. So I'd look on a map of all the tourist/locations of interest in the wider area and then pick potentially suitable large villages/small towns in the middle of them. It's much better to be based somewhere where you have 20/30 min access to lots of interesting places to visit than be "in" one and have have to travel an hour or more for something different. This is important for you as you don't want to "get bored" of visiting the same things time and again.

• goodish transportation links into London so you can do day trips. I'd say goodish as it's not a daily commute. You'll presumably be driving to your holiday home but won't want to drive into London, so you'll want access to the trains - so where's the nearest station? Can you walk to it? If not is there parking? How expensive would a taxi be to the station etc

Isle of Wight.

Second the need to consider the distance from your home and how long it takes to get there. Our holiday home is at least 7hrs away, so going for anything less than four or five days is really exhausting. As as a result though its idyllic we only get there five or six times a year. Also second the suggestion to look for a small or minimal garden. Ours has a great patio ideal for kids to play safely, eating outside or sunbathing but definitely no time required on gardening.

Thanks all! I note all the points

I think we are trying to be flexible and think of a range of options

it doesnt have to be so close that we pop there for weekends frequently

we like coastal but could do say somewhere mote city based in london or with easy access to london

it is ideas for locations we are struggling with