By The Editor · Holiday Home Times
Every July, the same thing happens: interest in holiday homes spikes. School terms end, the first real summer heat arrives, and people who have been meaning to ‘look into buying somewhere’ for the past two years suddenly feel the urgency of it. The searches go up. The enquiry emails come in.
This July is no different, except that the backdrop has shifted. Property prices in most of our featured markets have softened from their 2022–2023 peaks, but they haven't corrected in the way that many buyers were waiting for. Algarve villas are down 8% from peak in some areas; in others they're flat. North Goa is still expensive by historical standards. Phuket is seeing secondary market stock, but prime beachfront isn't cheap. The Dubai story is its own, and it involves prices that are still rising.
Meanwhile, the interest rate environment hasn't resolved itself the way 2024 optimists hoped. Rates have come down from their peak, but the era of 2% mortgages feels distant now. For buyers financing part of a second property purchase, the servicing cost matters more than it did three years ago.
The result is a paradox that I hear about in reader emails more often than any other single topic: I've wanted to buy somewhere abroad for years. I have the money. And somehow it still doesn't feel like the right moment.
I don't think the answer to this is a buying signal or a waiting signal. It's a values question, dressed up as a market question. The people I know who have bought holiday homes — in Goa, in the Algarve, in Phuket — don't typically describe the decision as having been financially optimal. They describe it as having been personally important. The property became a place where a particular kind of life happened, repeatedly, over years. The return was not yield. It was the thing itself.
That doesn't mean you should buy regardless of price. It means that ‘is this the right moment?’ is often the wrong question. The more honest version is: ‘is this the right place, and would owning it make my life materially better?’ If the answer is yes, the financial case follows from there with patience and clear thinking. If the answer is no, no price makes it right.
This issue focuses on the categories we've heard most about from readers this month: financing, legal compliance, how to maximise rental income from what you already own, and how to upgrade what you have before next season. No destination features this issue — those will return in August. For now, we're focused on the how.
Enjoy summer, wherever you're spending it.
The Editor
Holiday Home Times