Everyone's talking about the property market right now and the holiday let property market is all part of that. When it comes to getting a mortgage on a holiday property, knowing what the market is like, and what lenders are looking for is vital. In this episode, Mark talks to his son, Joe Stallard, director at House and Holiday Home Mortgages, about exactly what's going on in this pocket of the UK economy right now. Much of what they discuss is the kind of information you won't hear anywhere else! Transcript of the show:State of the Holiday Let Market. Joe, good morning. lovely to be in Winchester on a bright spring morning. It's a long time since we got together and talked about the holiday let market. Absolutely. And, so I thought it was a good opportunity to just go over what's happening in the marketplace since what was a very busy period for everybody. So, tell me about, let's start and talk about the panic the pandemic ended. Where, where do you think we are now, Joe Holiday, that market wise? Sure. So, yeah, so I guess the, the pandemic was obviously very busy in the, in the holiday, that world. It was, , everybody jumping on the the boom of, of staycations, as it were really. So where are we now? Well, we're March 23, so things have settled a bit. We seem to have mainly come out the, the other end of it but obviously we've had the cost of living stuff that, that's occurred sort of between the real boom and, and now, I don’t know about you, but how you found that with, with your clients and how that's impacted things.Yeah. I think Joe, the answer to that is, is I think the people who really want to do this are still in the market. They still want to go at, they still want to find the properties that they're looking for. I think the people that read in the newspaper, it was a good idea to own a holiday let, I think they've probably somewhat evaporated away.So, I think it's, we've got the professionals now, to be fair. Yes, I think I'd, I'd probably echo those sentiments. I think, you know, we have lots of conversations with people looking at, at properties, looking at costs and understanding stuff, but perhaps they're a little bit more hesitant to, to pull the trigger on something than they were previously.And I think it, to a degree, might have professionalized. Sector a little bit. Yeah. I don't think, I don't think the number of inquiries we've got has actually gone down perhaps as much as I thought it might do. I think the cost-of-living thing is, a big challenge. I think that with has prices, you know, still high in certain , and still high in that sort of Devon and Cornwall areas that we work.Obviously I still think that there's a challenge there for people to make the numbers work. Do you agree? I do. I do. I think though, you see, you know, one of the biggest agents in the country -- cottages.com, they came out with their figures and said that that January bookings were up 33% year on year.So, obviously, going from one of the biggest years in holidays -- that's last year-- to still rising this year. I think that's a good sign. I think the cost of living is probably a challenge, but actually what it's probably done is it that the UK holiday, without all those additional costs of flying abroad, of central airport problems, cancellations of being able to take the dog with you on holiday and not put it in kennels for, you know, 300 pounds a week or whatever it would be on top of your normal holiday. I think there's still a, a desire for people to still want a break and get away. Yeah. I spoke to a client only last week and she said that they used to go abroad every year, but they don't go abroad now.They went during pandemic, they went to Yorkshire, they discovered Yorkshire, they found how beautiful it was, and they're now looking to buy a large property in Yorkshire, for themselves and, and to let out as well. And I think that actually mirrors many people. I certainly did two airport trips last year and I wouldn't really relish with any great gusto again.It wasn't pleasant, it wasn't fun. I think you touched on something there as well, that people have discovered little pockets of the UK that they might not have gone to before. And I think even if moving forwards, the UK holiday isn't their main holiday, which I think it will be for many, but I think it will still be those long weekends, those short breaks as a bit of a change of scenery and.Exploring some of the the stuff the UK has to offer. Yeah. Okay. So let, let's talk for a minute and Joe, about lenders. Have we got new lenders in the marketplace? How are our lenders? And what's it like out there? Yeah, so I think, you know, we've been quite slack on recording these, so, since, since the last one, we have a quite a lot of new entrants into the, into the holiday lending market, which is, which is great. I think lenders, in the holiday let space, we tend to get the smaller building societies who are, who are really ...
