Property Overseas: Cash in on Your Rental Potential
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Property Overseas: Cash in on Your Rental Potential
If the plethora of surveys are to be believed, everyone wants to own a holiday home abroad. Indeed, according to MRI Property International, 24 million of us are considering buying overseas. Yet on average we spend just two weeks a year in our foreign homes - and only 15 per cent of us would consider renting it out to make it pay its way when we're not there. Which seems a big wasted opportunity, particularly when holidaymakers are increasingly choosing to book holiday homes direct through the owners. Nearly a quarter of all foreign breaks taken by Britons last year were spent in private homes, 60 per cent of them booked online through the owners, according to Mintel, with websites such as Holiday Rentals, Holiday Lettings or Owners Direct charging owners about £100 a year to advertise a property on the site. "Lettings agents will charge high fees to manage your property and owners lose control over who stays there and when, but holiday rental portals provide a cheap and easy-to-manage solution where owners have full control over bookings and can earn a valuable second income," says Courtney Wylie from Holiday Rentals. So if rental income is an important factor in choosing your ski home, where should you invest? Take some tips from Holiday Rentals, which features 900 European ski chalets and apartments, mainly in France, Switzerland and Austria, and will be taking on 2,000 in North American this year. It has compiled its top five best and worst places to own a ski property if rental income is a priority. Properties in the top-performing places can expect 20-25 weeks annual occupancy and rents for an average two-bed apartment range from £120 per person per week in Bulgaria to £250 in France, it says. And you should be ready for business when the first surge of bookings starts in mid-October. Taking areas that have a good supply of properties, and basing results on the number of inquiries per property, Holiday Rentals has found that the top spot for ski rental demand is the upmarket Austrian resort of Kitzbuhel, whose glaciers provide Europe's only four-season skiing from September to June. Properties in Austria (www.propertiesinaustria.com; 0131 208 3795) is selling large, modern, two-bed apartments in the centre of town for £393,000 or three-bed Tyrolean houses outside for £293,000. Chamonix in France comes second. Prices are high, with five-bed chalets with exceptional views across Mont Blanc on sale through Prestige Property Group (www.prestigeproperty.co.uk) from £1.1m. The similarly upmarket Verbier in Switzerland's Valais canton comes third. But while the moratorium on foreign ownership has just been lifted, property quotas for non-resident buyers in the canton remain restricted to just 300 a year, mostly allocated to leaseback projects to encourage year-round use. "Most people who buy in Switzerland do it because they can afford to and don't need rental income," says Jeremy Rollason from Savills. "The Residence Pracondu leaseback scheme in Nendaz is designed for investors who want a self-financing second home that they can use three or four times a year without it affecting their rental income." Two more French Alpine resorts complete the top five: Les Houches in the sought-after Chamonix valley and The Three Valleys in the Savoie. "Chamonix is a rock-solid resort all year round and developments in surrounding villages such as Les Houches always sell well," says Bertie Sanderson, from ski property specialist Erna Low. La Plagne is also a safe bet, she says, or the spa town of Brides Les Bains may appeal to rental-minded buyers with smaller budgets: "A lot of ski staff in the Alps rent there during the season because it's linked to The Three Valleys but cheaper than Chamonix." The bottom five ski destinations for rental prospects suggest bad news for Bulgarian buyers hoping to prosper from holiday lets. Borovets, where apartments cost from £40,000 through Imoinvest (www.imoinvest.com, 0207 845 0700), sees the lowest demand for rental properties. And Bansko, where you can buy one-bed apartments in Paradise Verde from £24,000 through Experience BG (www.experiencebg.co.uk, 0800 612 0901), is number five. "Many people simply still don't know you can ski in Bulgaria. It'll take a while before emerging resorts like Bansko take off for rental demand," says Wylie. But proving that choosing the right resort, not just the right country, is key, in between the Bulgarian towns are three French resorts: the Pyrenees, "which always get a bit of a bad press and fewer visitors than the Alps," says Bertie Sanderson; the medieval town of Annecy in the foot of the Alps in the Haute-Savoie and the small, little-known Les Bois les Praz in Mont Blanc. For the greatest appeal to renters, pick a ski-in, ski-out property, says Sanderson. Proximity to the ski lift and a good ski area, within 90 minutes of an airport and in a lively resort are other pluses. Two- or three-bed apartments are better than one-bedders because they can accommodate friends, families or couples. A long-haul ski property may rule out your own spontaneous weekends on the slopes, but the rental potential could prove more reliable than buying in Europe. At the Three Sisters Mountain Village in Canmore in the Canadian Rockies, the local passion for active outdoor pursuits - from skiing and climbing to mountain biking and golf - is unwavering, ensuring good 12-month rental potential. Mont Tremblant, 90 minutes from Montreal, is famed for its golf, lake-bound activities and cuisine as much as its snow scene. "There are as many people who will choose Canada for their summer holiday as their ski breaks - and skiing now appeals to a wider market, not just wealthy holidaymakers, with low-cost airlines and last minutes deals meaning far more people can afford to come here for holidays," says Philip Barker from Overseas Homesearch (0800 6520 769; www.overseashomesearch.co.uk), which is selling apartments at Le Grand Lodge from £70,500. With a rare historical conversion project in a town dubbed the "coolest" in North America by Rolling Stone magazine, Fernie offers something different to the growing UK market in booming British Columbia and to the established market of US and Canadian holidaymakers. David Hall, a company director from St Albans, Hertfordshire, and his girlfriend Gail Foxcroft, a customer services manager, have bought a three-bedroom apartment for £357,000 in Pure International's 901 Fernie (www.pureintl.com, 0207 331 4500), a 1908 school converted into loft-style apartments. "Fernie's a buzzy little town, even in August when European resorts are often dead," says David. "It gets fantastic snow and it's real hunting, shooting, fishing territory, so there's a lot of mountain activity out of the ski season, which should provide good rental income." But Courtney Wylie warns owners that there is work to be done if you want to attract holidaymakers. "You need to sell the whole experience with lots of extra information and pictures. People want to hear that they can sit in a hot tub on the terrace and overlook the Alps," she says. "And don't expect bookings to flood in just because your property is on a lettings website. Reply promptly to 1nquiries and treat it like a business. Then having a holiday home can start to pay off."
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