Live in a Holiday Home

KylieWyley

There's talk of working arrangements changing post-Covid. Fully-remote and hybrid working arrangements becoming more of the norm, etc..

Just wondering if anyone has considered buying a property that would normally have been sold as a holiday home but instead buying it for the purposes of living in? Obviously any house would require a decent broadband connection, but I've seen some nice houses that are quite a bit more affordable than 'normal' housing in towns and cities and it could facilitate a nicer lifestyle.

Just wondering if I'm missing something. E.g., perhaps if they were built explicitly for temporary holiday accommodation, they wouldn't be built to as high a standard? Any other potential cons/drawbacks?

Has anybody gone down this route? If so, how has it gone for you?

Mrs OBumble

Insulation

Planning permission

L1011

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Insulation

Planning permission

+1 to both of these

Planning permission is the biggest potential issue for a specific holiday build

Storage - often none

Laundry facilities may be sub-par or shared

Kitchen facilities are often poor and have limited to no food or utensil storage


Even non-specific builds will have their issues if they've been holiday homes for a long time. My parents one was bought as a run-down traditional cottage in the late 70s and modernisation since has followed the standards you'd expect for a holiday cottage - tiny fridge and no space for a full size, one tiny wardrobe in one bedroom and a single shelf in the hot press in the other; toilets are in the en-suites with no main; no storage anywhere other than that in the bedrooms; limited number of sockets

bobbyy gee

sometimes your only allowed live there a certain amount time in year
alot are badly built and lack insulation
as people don't live there all year you get a lot of break ins

KylieWyley

Thanks for the responses. Good points above.

One thing that also occurred to me: during the off-season, much or your neighbouring houses could be empty for much of the year.

Curious about the planning permission point. I presume you still need to apply for permission before you build up a holiday home, regardless of how long you intend to live there. Given many of these houses are in scenic areas, would have assumed planners are *more* strict, at least as far as outward aesthetics go.

L1011

Dedicated holiday home planning may have ignored service provision that full time residences would need - schools, medical, transport etc.