[Closed] Buying a holiday cottage/ Bolt hole

Yeah, don't.

if you calculate and add up all the costs, everything, you probably wont do it.

look at what you will get, consider what you are going to do about it between visits, work out how many times you will visit in a year, think about the 've impact of going anywhere else feeling 'expensive', does this need financing, is this an investment which you want a return from

or just do it anyway 🙂

On a purely financial basis, this kind of thing always seems attractive until you look back at it in 10 years and realise that the amount you've spent on the thing would have put you up in decent B&Bs and hotels just as often.

In a rising market, maybe. At present, dubious. Especially if you're not looking to let it out in between your visits.

You know what they used to say, "come home to a real fire; buy a cottage in Wales"

🙂

I'd have a good think about the wider socioeconomic implications first. Where I grew up the housing market is skewed with overpriced 2/3 bed cottages and relatively cheap big hooses. Those in low income jobs (most of the population) have no hope of getting on the "housing ladder" and rental sector is is pish. I'd guess Wales is much worse. Sorry to be negative but it's a problem.

We have a static - took it over from the outlaws. Even that costs about £4k -£4.5k per year to keep going. We do use it most weekends, but and it's a 75-90 minute drive. It's also only 45 minutes from Llandegla and Gwidir Forest (Marin). We are just outside Prestatyn, not far from the coast.

Sorry to be negative but it’s a problem.

My parents had this issue when they relocated from London to the West Country. Initially classed as weekenders (they bought a cottage in a village near where they were building a bigger house) the local population was very slow to welcome them into village life.

Basically village folk hate weekenders.

I’d have a good think about the wider socioeconomic implications first

This. I live in an area where wages are 20% below the national average and house prices are 25% above the national average. Most jobs are minimum wage or just above so locals (especially the young) have no way of affording property. Long term renting is also expensive and hard to find. Half of our street is second homes.

Any advice?

Buy somewhere where it doesn't rain all the time? Even better, buy somewhere in the sun!

You know what they used to say, “come home to a real fire; buy a cottage in Wales”

Teeto, you need to look carefully at the purchase cost as the stamp duty on second houses is pretty monstrous now and on top of that some councils in Wales are added 50% to the council tax on furnished 'unnoccupied' homes - i.e. second homes that are not rented out for a minimum period of something like 100 days (forget what it is now).
Certainly something to think about.

With regards to your original question, we have a house by the beach (inherited from my parents) two hours away and it's very do-able. I know a number of people with houses in the same place that travel 3 hours each way every summer weekend.

You need to consider if, as a family (?), you're going to be happy going to the same place quite a lot as it may preclude going to other places.

We don't rent ours. The income would be good but it's less hassle and great just jumping in the car at any time you feel like it and heading there knowing that everything's exactly as you left it.
Inflated house prices can be an issue but the money entering many locations with a high proportion of second homes (this includes the ones that are rented) actually creates many jobs that would not otherwise exist. This is certainly the case where our house is but I realise that this may not be typical.
(Where our house is there are a number of new affordable homes for local residents that still remain unsold and empty over two years after being built)

Couple of points related to the above. There are a lot of properties in that part of Wales that are classed as holiday homes. You cannot live in them so hopefully less of an impact on the local housing market. Restricted by no occupation for one or two months a year or a max number of days a month. Usually purpose builts, conversions or log cabins. The log cabins start pretty cheap and are surprisingly plentiful. Usually a ground rent to consider as well.

On the journey time it's a nice drive if you don't have much to do in England. A pleasant country drive with nice options to stop on the way. Much better than a couple of hours on the motorway to Devon or the lakes say that can easily turn into 4 hours.

We drive to that part of Wales regularly and it's 3hrs. Far enough to feel remote but close enough not to be too much of a drag

If you want a holiday home then buy one on a holiday home park, anything else is just being a selfish knob.

If you want a holiday home then buy one on a holiday home park, anything else is just being a selfish knob.

Ok, now I’m confused? 🙃

But other than that, some good advice..

Also looking in Majorca, as that too, is only a couple of hours (flight) away..

If you want a holiday home then buy one on a holiday home park, anything else is just being a selfish knob.

Plenty of other reasons to do it, what if your 'home' is a house tied to a job and you want a foot on the property ladder before you retire at 65?

Or looking at parts of the country that aren't suffering a housing crisis? We keep looking at North Yorkshire (not as a holiday house, as a move) as I worked there for a few years, some of the houses listed were for sale when I was there 4 years ago!

Just to put another spin from one who has actually done it.

We bought a small place near the harbour in Brixham 5 years ago. It was in a right state and nobody would go near so we got a very good price. Spent years bringing it back into shape and found our neighbours to be fantastic. So much so that we sold our house in Wiltshire and moved permanently last year. We've found Brixham to be unbelieveably welcome as it is a diverse community with many others like us. Our neighbour is a born and bred local who has become a dearest friend. It's not all bad especially if like us you plan to move their full time. But you have to pick your location and also make the finances work as we did. As for the "selfish" comment. We rescued a house, became full time residents and put a decent amount of money into the locality in the process. Brixham had a net gain from us. It's not all dickheads owning a place and doing one weekend in summer.

We have a house in the south west of Ireland so a good few hours door to door from London. Best thing we ever bought, peaceful, quiet, bikes and kit are all out there. It's in the next valley over from where my dad left home 60 years ago and it turned out I'm distantly related to the family we bought it off. I'd go and live there full time if it were possible

Any advice?

Don't tie yourself to having exactly the same holiday every sodding time.

Also looking in Majorca, as that too, is only a couple of hours (flight) away..

Ah Majorca....now you’re talking! 1.45hr flight time from Gatwick. It was lovely weather in December and when I checked the cost of flights and car hire for six days, it was £68 for one person. No joke, Fiat 500 was £10 for six days!

We bought a small place near the harbour in Brixham 5 years ago.

Yeah, but no one local wants to live in brixham...

LOL @ Jam bo. You said what I was thinking. Bit harsh though.

Any advice?

You know where to really look.

You mentioned majorca, we've got a place there, had it for 30 odd years now,so let me know if you want any info.

I'd choose majorca any day over Wales, just because of the weather.

It takes around 4 hours door to door to get there, but if there's a flight delay it's a pain. You have to book in advance to get the best flight prices, if you leave it until the last minute in summer you will be paying £400each for flights.

It's not cheap for food/drink unless you go to the inland villages.

flights between May and October are not cheap, and the weather over winter, whilst warmer than the UK is still wet'ish.

A guy I know well lives in Oz. He owns a property in a small Cornish coastal village, a very popular place indeed so he offers it for holiday rental. I visit occasionally, to keep an eye, do a bit of maintenance etc. The village is properly idyllic, cobblestones, pasties, nice beach, vibe, local beer etc.

Generally I only visit when there are fewer tourists in the village. Then the place is empty. Shops are closed and many houses empty. It is really easy to spot the rental properties because of the key boxes in the doorways. This in it's turn seems to indicate either a lazy local landlord or a distant/ absent one.

Young families cannot afford to buy a home in the village in which they were born. Measures to try to provide local housing are starting to be put in place but as yet have made little difference.

My brother plans eventually to return to his house but in the meantime the house is not a home. Despite taking advantage of this situation, it makes me uncomfortable.

A guy I know well lives in Oz.

My brother plans eventually to return to his house

Are these the same person and you just referred to your brother as a guy you know well?

Don’t tie yourself to having exactly the same holiday every sodding time.

Not really found this an issue, quite happy to go to other places as well.

The guy is my brother.

Don’t tie yourself to having exactly the same holiday every sodding time.

I’m not intending to, I just wanted somewhere we could use on a random weekend, or holiday..

Still intend to travel for longer trips away.

But yeah, Majorca would be my choice, and flights are cheap enough so deffo a lot to think about.

Cheers all, some good advice, some knobs, but overall in typical STW, a nice balance..

Food for thought.

ages ago I (and a flatmate) thought about this, really as a pipe dream and so it remained. Though he did in the end buy such a family getaway house on the West Coast. We did think about it too but reckoned as above, time travel, tying you down to one area, costs and hassle, made it just not the sensible option. Could head for favourite top hotels for less cost in the long run.

ah, too slow! take care Nick.

Did this some years ago. It seemed like a good idea at the time. (House is a solid 150m from the nearest place you can get a car to so I don't think, realistically, it'd be bought by a local family, who all buy semis up the top for half the price, whatever...) I say it's an hour and a half drive but really it's an hour and three-quarters and I have a lot of points on my licence being caught by radar doing mid-30s through N Yorks villages. I'm bad, I'm bad, shamone etc.

Anyway, it's a very doable distance. meaning I sit here on a Saturday morning contemplating finding shelter from 50 mph winds for a surf tomorrow. That's pretty much the upside, together with having somewhere to stash boards. Oh and I guess going over with friends instead of having to cook 'em dinner. Everything else is downside (what's that wind going to do to the ****ing slates?) Particularly I had an idea it would be nice to go over with the kids, instead of living my midlife crisis in vans in seaside carparks of the nation with fellow neoprene clad pilgrims. But then you swiftly look round and the kids are teenagers who have no intention of being away from their mates. Yes we knocked through, stone flags on the ground floor, and put in a wood burner, so expressing my individuality through interior design. You can imagine the quirky seaside touches... Enough info? Surely enough stw points.

Just in the process of buying one. Will probably be used as a holiday let too.

I liked the idea of a small cabin type boat, as a project you can visit every couple of months or so.

A water caravan, at least of gives the option of moving to somewhere else which you dont have with a static place.

Basically village folk hate weekenders.

Unless there’s no village folk left...
Castle Combe is a good example, many of the houses are empty during the week.
Although, several friends of mine were born and grew up there, and they’re glad they don’t now, partly because of the intrusive tourists, partly because the cottages are pretty cold and damp, what with being in the bottom of a valley next to a river.
Other local villages are more like they used to be, although there are incomers, they tend to live in the villages and work relatively locally, so they aren’t just dormitory ghost villages during the week.