Vacation letting

Press, 4 January 1978, Page 12

Vacation letting

Some people going away with their families during the summer vacation choose to let their homes for the period of the vacation — perhaps for three or four weeks, and longer. Real estate agents report that inquiries have been very steady for local holiday accommodation this summer.

In nearly all cases the people concerned are strangers to each other. Homes are thrown open to the incoming tenants and full use is made of such items as telephone, television, crockery and cutlery and every other amenity as though it was the tenant’s own home. How does this system of allowing strangers to use your house for a holiday work? Real estate people say that almost invariably the arrangements are completed successfully. The people who occupy these homes for the holiday period leave their own homes in other parts of New Zealand so that they can have a holiday in comfortable conditions;

they therefore respect the holiday home as they would respect their own. Care is taken by agents, using all available infor-

mation, to match tenants as closely as possible with the type of house required. Higher than normal rents are usually asked for in holiday letting and the revenue helps the owners to enjoy their own holidays at the beach or wherever it is they wish to go.

Most owners who offer their homes in this way do so in the knowledge that an occupied house is less likely to attract the attention of intruders than an empty one, particularly if the tenant agrees to

provide ail exterior evidence of occupation — such as the mowing of lawns and the clearance of the mailbox. Agents often have a list of potential clients for this type of holiday home.

LOOKING AT REAL ESTATE

By the Real Estate Institute