5 European Countries To Consider When Investing In Holiday Rental Properties
The 2011 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report is a 531 page document based on literally hundreeds of Index Ratings for pretty much every imaginable metric you could want to measure relating to a Country and it's competitiveness in the travel and tourism sector.
The report looks at three broad categories: the framework of a country, the business environment and infrastructure, and human cultural and natural resources. Additionally it then looks at fourteen separate indexes for each of the three categories: policy rules and regulations, environmental sustainability, safety and security, health and hygiene, prioritisation of the sector, air transport infrastructure, ground transport infrastructure, tourism infrastructure, ICT infrastructure, price competitiveness, human resources, affinity for the sector, natural and cultural resources.
To add yet more data these indexes are broken down even further, but I do not plan to list all of them here.
What I will mention though is that there is an unbelievable amount of data, and rather like a pick 'n' mix stall, by selecting a number of relevant indexes it is possible to create some remarkably unique information.
By way of example: if you were looking to invest in a holiday home property it would (I assume) make sense to pick a country that has fewer hotels and hotel occupancy levels than one at the top of the index?
I would also hazard a guess that a well established country at the top of the travel and tourism competitiveness index would make sense in terms of potential visitors, but being top means it is probably already a crowded market.
Emerging countries would appeal, but not one that had too far to climb before it became popular, so I would suggest a country hovering just below the Top 10 but with a couple of years of improvement already to its name would be a good bet.
So popular, but not too popular, improving, but still some way to go, and not too many hotels. I would also suggest that a country with a high level of natural sites and World Heritage sites would be attarctive as these are 'assets' that are fundamentaly fixed to the country, as compared to say policy rules which can change with governments, as I am sure many a property owner in Spain can confirm with the ongoing 'Illegal Homes" issues.
Taking those factors into consideration then the 5 European Countries that you may want to consider when investing in a holiday rental property are:
- Sweden
- Norway
- Estonia
- Luxembourg
- Cyprus
As ever would love to hear your views, and remember to ALWAYS seek a professionals advice before purchasing a foreign property!
