Can anyone offer any advice on owning a holiday home away from where you live?

I’m looking into the feasibility of owning a holiday home where I holiday each year (120 miles away from where I live). The place I currently use books up really quickly so I’m guessing it shouldn’t be too difficult to rent it for most of the year.

I don’t want an income from the house but would hope the house would pay for itself and allow me a free holiday 2-3 times per year.

So, questions:

1. Other than the costs of advertising through a holiday cottage company what other costs will there be?

2. I’d need someone to clean it between changeovers, any ideas of how much this would cost? Is it simply someone’s time for 4ish hours a week?

3. When issues arise how is this handled? From what I gather at the place I stay at you call the cleaner/house keeper if there are an issues so are they then paid extra for anything they have to deal with?

4. Would I pay tax on the total income or is it just profit?

5. Can I buy a £3k bike “for my customers to use” and claim back the VAT 🙂

Thanks for any help.

Contact a letting agent in the area. They will offer a management and booking service in return for a percentage.

We looked at it a few years ago but couldn't make it pay. Shame, because if we had I'd be off to North Yorkshire this afternoon for a weekend of playing out.

There are usually agents which will look after the cleaning / maintenance / marketing of it for you. Costs will vary, but I'd be thinking in the 20% of income ballpark + VAT

You'll pay tax on any income from it* – there is a special section on the self assessment for holiday home income.

You'll be able to offset some of the profit on some of the costs – the interest part of any mortgage is the big one.

Other things to consider are rates / utilities / insurance and if there are any clauses about not being able to buy some properties for holiday homes.

Good luck.

Forgot about the bills!

Thats useful, at least I should now be able to roughly work out if it would be worth it based on costs/estimated income.

If you're renting to the general public, include a generous allowance for maintenance and repairs.

If you're only looking to cover costs, not make a profit, then it might be better to only rent to friends and family (depends on how much those costs are, of course!)

If you're only looking to cover costs, not make a profit, then it might be better to only rent to friends and family

some one i know only rents to F&F; no advertisement; no fees rents it cheaply and asks you to clean it up after yourself.

makes it easy on their part. however may not pay as much as booking out all the time.

I don't have that many friends and family!!!

Rough calculations suggest it would cost around £17k a year to own (exc fees).