The biggest advantage of owning your own holiday home is, of course, that you always have your own place. You furnish it however you want, simply leave those holiday clothes and oh-so-delicious bottle of wine behind, and can spontaneously go away for a weekend whenever you like. Moreover, you can rent out the house when you are not there yourself to recoup some of the costs. But there is another side to the coin. For instance, you have high fixed costs. Think of parking fees, insurance, taxes, and any ground rent. You also have to deal with maintenance and other hassles. From painting and garden maintenance to that leaky tap. You have to go there yourself or pay someone to fix it. And Last but not leastYou always end up at the same destination. Once you have invested heavily in one place, it can feel like you have to go there often, even though there are so many other beautiful places to discover.

Let's calculate with a starting amount of 200.000 euros and an interest rate of three percent per year. In this example, that yields 6.000 euros in interest per year. If you spend that amount entirely on accommodation, it comes down to approximately four holiday weeks at 1.500 euros per week, or six weeks at 1.000 euros.

So, the idea is actually very simple. You use the interest for your holidays and leave the initial capital invested. You have no maintenance, park fees, or other fixed costs associated with owning a holiday home. Taxes and other holiday expenses, such as transport and eating out, are not included. In practice, the return naturally depends on the interest rate, the terms and conditions, taxes, and inflation.