From Wales to Spain: How to Find Your Perfect Holiday Home

Should you invest your hard-earned money in buy-to-let property, or should you use that cash to travel the world?

With an overseas holiday home you can do both!

Of course, buying a house is a big investment, and buying an overseas property can bring an additional layer of complications. Here are a few things you should bear in mind if you’re considering buying a holiday home.

Set a Budget

While you might have enough money set aside to buy your holiday home (or at least enough to pay the 25% to 40% deposit you would be expected to cover if you were taking out a holiday home mortgage), but it probably goes without saying that the purchase price isn’t the only cost you’re going to face.

It’s important to figure out how much you’re able to afford on a monthly or annual basis for both the upkeep of your holiday home and the travel fees to get to it, and then use that to decide which locations you can afford.

After all, there’s no point buying a holiday home in the Bahamas if you are unlikely to be able to afford to fly from Wales to the Bahamas each year!

Choose a Location

In theory you could buy a holiday home almost anywhere in the world, but from a practical point of view it would make sense for your property to be close enough that you can get to it easily and cheaply, but far enough away that the weather is likely to much better than what you’d enjoy back home in Wales.

That’s why many Welsh property investors choose to buy a holiday home in Spain.

With regular, low-cost flights from the UK to Spain all year round, and very short journey times to most parts of Spain, choosing to buy a Spanish holiday home would mean you could visit multiple times each year, and could even pop over for weekend vacations or bank holiday getaways.

Consider the Space

The next thing that you should consider when you are looking for the perfect holiday home is to make sure you find one that’s big enough to meet your needs.

A holiday home with at least 2 bedrooms would be ideal for a small family or couple travelling with friends. As well as having spare rooms, the overall living space in the house should be big enough to live in so you can decorate a holiday home and add some personalised touches as well as incorporate some home comforts.

Central or Quiet Location?

Another thing to consider when you are looking for the perfect holiday home is to decide if you would like to be based in a central or quiet location. If you are in a central location you will be able to go to bars and restaurants, and it will probably be easier to rent out your holiday home out if it’s in a central location too.

On the other hand, if you are looking for some privacy to relax then a quieter area might be a better option for you. Have a think about what might suit you and your family best.

Renting Out Your Property

Since you will not be staying in your property all year round you should maybe consider renting out your property for others to use. A growing number of travellers prefer to stay in villas or apartments when they are abroad rather than hotels, so this could be a chance for you to make some money from the house when you are not using it.

Renting out a holiday home does bring additional administrative tasks and expenses, including holiday home insurance and domestic cleaning services. For the latter option it might be a good idea to sign up for a property management company who can arrange cleaners etc, while for the former you could use an online price comparison service to compare Spanish holiday let insurance from a range of different insurance providers.