An interesting article on the BBC website. The research only covers properties assessed for business rates as self-catering lets, not people doing Airbnb or renting out houses still assessed under council tax.
Some key numbers:
- 23% of visitors to Scotland rented a self-catering property for at least part of their visit.
- 32% came from England, with the north-west being the largest regional contributor and London the smallest.
- Scots renting self-catering properties in Scotland accounted for 30% of the total, while the other 27 EU nations represented only 4%.
- Most groups were made up only of adults, with children included in 30% of rentals.
- The average spend on accommodation was reckoned to be £643 per group, totalling £313m.
- They spent, on average, £245 on travel to and from the property.
That’s not the only promising news today – we have passed the initial affordability checks for the mortgage we need and have now proceeded to a full application for a decision in principle. If we get that, then things are looking good – as long as they agree with the valuation. We’ve got a little bit of wiggle room cash-wise, but not a huge amount.
I’ve also heard back regarding buying the land Ethel’s House sits on and the Agreement in Principle should be with me on Monday, but the gist is that I’ll need to pay them £150 for the actual land, plus £280+VAT to their solicitor for preparing and issuing the formal offer of sale, plus £300+VAT to the Drawing Office for them to send a surveyor up to prepare plans to be attached to the offer of sale. Then I’ll have my solicitor costs on top of that, so it’ll work out about six times the cost of the land for all the paperwork!! However, this gives the house title deeds and puts it on the Registers of Scotland, making it suitable security for a mortgage, so it’s well worth doing.