There are many reasons why you might want to purchase a holiday home. For many, it’s the convenience and the ability to avoid the effort involved in planning your travels that make the prospect so appealing. When you have a holiday home to jet off to, you never have to worry about finding and booking the right accommodation.
Buying a holiday home is not a process that can be rushed or one that you can afford to cut corners with though. It’s much wiser to take your time and first of all understand the challenges that come with purchasing a holiday home and how it can be done in the right way. Below we share some thoughts on this but we would always recommend going through the right channels when looking to make a purchase like this.
Clarify Your Individual Needs, Priorities and Future Plans
First of all, you need to be clear about what your plans are and what you actually need from your holiday home. For some people, it’ll be a comfortable space that they’ll use as a convenient place to stay when they’re visiting their favorite destination. But for others it can have a dual purpose – a place to escape to and also a way to generate some additional income.
Many holiday home owners look to rent it out their property during both peak and off peak times of the year. So if you’re planning on looking into renting your property as well, be sure to weigh up the tourist potential of your desired destination and factor in any legal considerations you may also need to take into account.
Get Your Finances in Order
It’s a good idea to get your finances in order before you go about the task of buying up a holiday home. You’re probably going to need to think about foreign currencies, dealing with lenders in other countries if you need a mortgage and plenty of other things.
Sorting all of that out is a lot easier if you’ve got a handle on your finances and all of the relevant documentation is in good order. Don’t make your life harder than it needs to be.
Prioritise the Location and Transport Links
If you’re going to be using this holiday home for short breaks and things like that, you’ll no doubt want to maximize your time there. And in order to do that, the home is going to need to be accessible.
If there are no airports or transport links nearby, you’ll have a more difficult and longer task when it comes to reaching your holiday each time you want to visit it. So when browsing the options, it makes sense to make these things a top priority for you.
Research Locals Laws Around Who’s Allowed to Purchase Property
Each country has its own rules around who’s allowed to buy homes in that location. Most countries make it possible for foreign nationals to purchase holiday homes and things like that. But it’s not something that’ll necessarily be the same in each country.
So be sure to do your research and be sure to understand the laws and regulations that’ll apply to you if you want to purchase a home. It’s best to understand these things sooner rather than later in the process.
Understand the Local Property Market
Another thing you’ll need to have a solid understanding of is the local property market. You should take your time browsing the options and when you find a property for sale that you like, you should be sure to view it multiple times and have it inspected before committing to anything.
Talk to local estate agents and professionals who can offer the kind of insight that you might not otherwise have access to. There’s never anything wrong with deferring to the people who know better than you.
Consider the Investment Potential
It’s also important to think about what the property has to offer in terms of investment potential. If you know that the property market in that location is currently in a slump but expected to recover, it might be a good time to buy.
You never know when you might want to sell up and take profits in the future, so it’s always worth assessing the purchase from the point of view of an investment and not just a holiday home.
Don’t Get Carried Away When Property Hunting
When you start the process of looking for a property to buy in the location you’re interested, it’s important to not get too carried away with the whole experience. It can be easy to get over-excited and rush into things a little too soon.
There are lots of great properties available in most of these locations, so there’s no need to rush the process or get carried away. Your dream property could be just about to become available on the property market.
Look for Good Outdoor Space Options
If you’re looking to buy a property in a place that has great weather and you want to enjoy the outdoors, be sure to look for a home that can offer that in the form of a nice garden or even a pool area.
When it comes to selecting a holiday home, it’s important to remember that the outdoor space matters just as much as the indoor space and there’s no getting away from that fact.
Be Sure to Put Strong Security Measures in Place
Once the property is yours, one thing that you’ll need to think carefully about is the security of the property. If you don’t have the right security measures in place, your property will be vulnerable when you’re not there.
It’s a good idea to put security cameras in place and connect them to your devices so you can see what’s happening and check up on things even when you’re back home in a completely different country. The importance of good security can’t be ignored.
Got Something to Add?
As you can see, there’s a lot to take into account and consider when you want to purchase a holiday home. Making a success of it and ensuring you don’t make any of the mistakes so commonly made can seem tough, but it can be done and the ideas outlined here prove that to you, so make the most of them.
If you’ve bought a holiday home in the past or are considering purchasing one and have additional tips to share, please add them in the comments section below.
Until next time, thanks for reading.
Helen, Nial and Lewis.
Welcome to Pikalily, an award-winning food, travel and lifestyle blog. We are Nial and Helen, a happily married couple from Northern Ireland, who share a passion for food and travel among many things. We became parents to our beautiful boy Lewis in 2017. Follow our adventures through the blog.
