Holiday homes

The idea of a holiday home remains, for many; something they might think of as being out of their financial league, a luxury reserved for the wealthy few. It appears, however, that this perception might be changing – some 350,000 Britons now own a holiday home in this country and more still a home abroad. This is an estimated increase of 15% over the last three years and seems to show that the possibility of a second home is becoming feasible for more people than ever before.

The main reason for this trend is likely to be the explosion in house prices over recent years; people who’ve made significant profits on the sale of a property are increasingly seduced by the possibility of down-sizing and buying a second home with any surplus. The notion is particularly popular with city-dwellers who crave a more relaxed country retreat as somewhere they can regularly escape to. In theory this gives the stressed professional the best of both worlds - a city pad that’s handy for work in which to base themselves during the week and a country idyll where they can wind-down over the weekend and during holidays.

It seems increasingly that home buyers are taking a more strategic approach to buying properties and in many cases holiday homes are being seen as investments – hardly surprising given the current escalation in second home buying. This means that for many the added challenge involved with purchasing a second home is trying to anticipate the next holiday home hot-spot. If you manage to pick up a home somewhere that turns out to be the next Rock (these days known as Chelsea-on-Sea, with prices to match) you could make a serious profit. There are plenty of places all over the country being tipped as up-coming holiday destinations; Croyde and the surrounding coast in North Devon for instance is hotly tipped for a Rock-esque boom. While searching for the perfect home remember that as with any big investment insurance and cover must be taken into account with other expenses. For a comprehensive guide see ASDA home insurance.

For those who’s budget won’t necessarily stretch to the escalating prices of nice, well-situated (we’re talking in excess of a million for less than palatial houses on the fashionable Camel estuary) properties in the South-West then parts of the Welsh coast are currently being touted as property hot-spots but are still a good bet for relative affordability.

Before you rush to the Estate Agent however it’s worth giving some consideration to the more contentious implications of holiday home buying. The growth of the second home market has attracted controversy for having a negative effect on local communities where second home buying has proliferated. With significant proportions of small towns or villages being bought up by people who won’t actually be there most of the time there is a risk that long standing communities are being eroded and local businesses like post offices negatively effected. It has also been suggested that an influx of second home buyers is likely to have a distorting effect on the local housing market to the extent of potentially pricing out locals.