We own a holiday house, we bought it about 4 or 5 years ago. It is about 5-6 hours from where we live, which is really too far but the town is very special to me as my family owned a holiday house there when I was growing up. (That house was sold about 20 years ago after about 60 years in the family... long, sad story!) I have wonderful memories of family holidays there and I wanted the same for my own kids.
The pros are pretty straight forward - we have a beautiful place to holiday whenever we want to. We don't have to worry about booking accommodation or the cost of it. The kids are familiar with the house and the town and love going there. We don't have to pack anything as the house is set up with all we need, including clothes. We can take our pets with us.
The cons - apart from the initial cost of purchasing the property, don't forget the cost of furnishing it... everything from beds to saucepans and whitegoods. Ebay is great for furniture if you are happy to buy second hand stuff. (Beds I bought new!) Then there are the ongoing costs; even if you don't spend much time there, you will still pay for the service connections of gas, electricity and water. We pay someone to come and mow the lawns and maintain the gardens as we can't guarantee that we will be there to do it ourselves, and who wants to spend their holidays mowing lawns anyway! Don't forget home and contents insurance, which is quite expensive.
Apart from the costs, there are other cons. We feel guilty if we haven't been to the house in a while as it seems such a waste to have it just sitting there. DH also struggles to book a holiday anywhere else, partly because he loves it there and partly because spending money to go elsewhere seems like a waste to him. Family think that they have every right to use the house whenever they want and at no cost. I am happy for some of my family to use it, but there are a couple of members of my family who have no respect for anyone else's belongings and have stayed and left the damaged and dirty. This has caused some fairly big issues when we have said 'no' next time they have asked to use the house. Although we take our pets, I am not keen on other people taking their un-toilet trained pets - particularly when those toileting accidents are left for a couple of months and ruin the carpet I paid an obscene amount of money for due to the 'remote' location of the house. Yes, we have had some issues with family! We don't rent the house out, it is purely for personal use, so this makes it easier to refuse when friends ask to 'borrow' the house. And every second person asks!
We purchased the house with the intention of never selling it, our plan is to hand the house down to our children and they can hand it down to theirs. Although the house has created some unforeseen issues, particularly with my sister, we have no regrets.
Thanks for your reply Nickle! You are so lucky having your own holiday house . The cons you have listed are all on our list too. If we do eventually buy our own place, we plan on being straight-up about not lending the house out to others for free. It will be on an invite only basis. Otherwise there will be LOTS of family/friends politics involved which would certainly ruin the fun. Also, if we plan on renting it out, we'd give preference to those willing to pay the rental rates as we'll desperately need the cash!
We have already factored in gas/electricity/insurance/water, etc. we've estimated there should be around $5000 in outgoings each year (ouch!).
It's a shame you have had some people do damage to your house , it's also very sad that it has caused issues with your family. I'm very glad to hear that even after all of that you don't regret it!
My cousin and his wife have one down at philip island, I think they have had if for around 2 years now. They have been heavily into property investing for many years so were fortunate enough to be in the position of buying their holiday house and only having a very small mortgage on it. So they don't need to rent it out, lucky them! They allow family/friends to stay there when they aren't using it and stuck to the fridge they have a laminated set of 'rules' lol! Most of it is pretty common sense but I think its good to have it in writing for all to see IYKWIM? Things like 'if you break it you replace it' and 'please leave a donation for electricity bill lol' and 'please vacuuum/mop before you leave' etc. So far I don't think they have had any issues.
Best of luck! I have no doubt that the two of you will be able to make it a reality one day
I have a holiday home. We don't rent ours out because the time we would rent it for is the time we want to use it. I think that is one of the cons of holiday houses - that the most demand will be when you want it ie Christmas and other holidays.
We let family and friends use it in exchange for doing something around the house. No-one has ever left it any way other than immaculate although my ILs insist on moving the microwave. We have very little bench space so I put the microwave on top of the fridge because I only use it once in a blue moon. They move it down to use it and then leave it there so I always have to put it back up and always end up jamming a finger. I'm thinking of giving it to the neighbours.
As an investment....... our advice was that we should think of it as an investment in lifestyle. Even if you do rent them they don't bring great returns and capital growth can be patchy (although I suspect that now is a good time to buy because the market in a lot of tourist areas is very flat).
I am lucky to be in a position to half own one house with my sister, and my mum half owns another with her sister. One by the beach and one in the alpine region.
For us there are no issues with the beach house. It is currently rented to desal for the next year. After that, it gets about $1,500 a week for peak season, so it pays itself.
The alpine one is a bit tougher. Too many issues with others using it and not contributing anything, so my mum gets lumped with the expense. My DH and my dad maintain it, which makes it easier, but co owning in quite hard. But because it is in such a lovely spot, everyone wants to go there.
Sangie - Your cousin is lucky! Whereabouts on the Island is his house? I hope you get to use it too!
Onyx - We want to buy one as a lifestyle investment too . We'd only rent it out for a couple of years to help with the mortgage. It will be a bit sad when we can't use it over Christmas, etc., but one day it will be all ours to use whenever we want. We could possibly get a cheaper "shack" and not have to rent it out, but long term I dream of ocean views and if you want them you have to pay! How frustrating that your MIL moves the microwave! Maybe you need to leave a note on it.
Lilima - Wow you guys are lucky having a couple of holiday homes in the family! I wish my sister could afford to go halves with me! I'm guessing yours must be close to where I want to buy based on renting out to desal? Do you find people who rent it out over holidays look after it? I'm having nightmares about schoolies lol! Bummer your mum gets lumped with the expenses for her property. I think if we buy one we'll set ground rules from day one.
I'm hoping the market stays flat over the next 12 months, we'd have just that little bit more money saved to make things more comfortable. I wish we hadn't seen our dream property on the weekend, I want it now!!
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. The cons you have listed are all on our list too. If we do eventually buy our own place, we plan on being straight-up about not lending the house out to others for free. It will be on an invite only basis. Otherwise there will be LOTS of family/friends politics involved which would certainly ruin the fun. Also, if we plan on renting it out, we'd give preference to those willing to pay the rental rates as we'll desperately need the cash! 
, it's also very sad that it has caused issues with your family. I'm very glad to hear that even after all of that you don't regret it!
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