Soldato
At the risk of opening myself up to torrents of abuse, i know there are many on here who have second homes.
I posted in GD about holiday lodges and asking for opinions, but the more i think of it i'm leaning more towards an actual flat/cottage. The monthly costs seem like they would end up being similar given some of the site fees i've been looking at, but without having an asset that's depreciating like a stone at the cost of being in a slightly worse location (Obviously a mortgage would be spread over a much longer period than a loan to buy a caravan).
Would be interested from any other second home owners in case there's something obvious i'm not factoring in.
At the minute i'm trying to work out whether it is/isn't affordable to do.
Obviously there's the cost of buying somewhere, solicitors fees and the 3% second home stamp duty. I'm looking at less than £150k so any regular SDLT would be minimal.
So up front cost would likely be around £5k. Plus furniture, i'd be looking to pick up bargains and wouldn't be after the best quality so maybe another £2k initially with the plan to add to that when we see what we'd need.
General Costs.
Utilities - £70 (Does this seem reasonable given minimal use? Any advice would be good
Broadband - £25
Council Tax - ~£100
Part of the idea would be to let it out occasionally just to bring in some income. I WON'T be reliant on this from an affordability point of view.
How much do you pay for landlord insurance and the gas certificate you need? From a google i'm thinking around £300/yr for both.
Then what do people do about cleaning? For a weekly let then it's not a big deal and a ~£50 clean can be factored into the price, but for a single night/weekend on Airbnb, this feels like a high cost to price into any Nightly fees and there’s obviously the question of availability of cleaners at fairly short notice.
Our thinking is really to only let it out for 4-5 weeks during the summer months and maybe bank holidays when demand/rental income would be high. We don’t have young kids so could go at any time so it makes sense to cash in at peak times. In theory, renting out for ~£600/week would cover a big amount of the cost, although as mentioned it's not something we're basing our affordability on.
Beyond the usual homeowner type costs and maintenance, is there anything we need to think about?
I posted in GD about holiday lodges and asking for opinions, but the more i think of it i'm leaning more towards an actual flat/cottage. The monthly costs seem like they would end up being similar given some of the site fees i've been looking at, but without having an asset that's depreciating like a stone at the cost of being in a slightly worse location (Obviously a mortgage would be spread over a much longer period than a loan to buy a caravan).
Would be interested from any other second home owners in case there's something obvious i'm not factoring in.
At the minute i'm trying to work out whether it is/isn't affordable to do.
Obviously there's the cost of buying somewhere, solicitors fees and the 3% second home stamp duty. I'm looking at less than £150k so any regular SDLT would be minimal.
So up front cost would likely be around £5k. Plus furniture, i'd be looking to pick up bargains and wouldn't be after the best quality so maybe another £2k initially with the plan to add to that when we see what we'd need.
General Costs.
Utilities - £70 (Does this seem reasonable given minimal use? Any advice would be good
Broadband - £25
Council Tax - ~£100
Part of the idea would be to let it out occasionally just to bring in some income. I WON'T be reliant on this from an affordability point of view.
How much do you pay for landlord insurance and the gas certificate you need? From a google i'm thinking around £300/yr for both.
Then what do people do about cleaning? For a weekly let then it's not a big deal and a ~£50 clean can be factored into the price, but for a single night/weekend on Airbnb, this feels like a high cost to price into any Nightly fees and there’s obviously the question of availability of cleaners at fairly short notice.
Our thinking is really to only let it out for 4-5 weeks during the summer months and maybe bank holidays when demand/rental income would be high. We don’t have young kids so could go at any time so it makes sense to cash in at peak times. In theory, renting out for ~£600/week would cover a big amount of the cost, although as mentioned it's not something we're basing our affordability on.
Beyond the usual homeowner type costs and maintenance, is there anything we need to think about?
