By contrast, Sara and Juan Naveda live by the sea in Leigh, Essex, and bought a holiday cottage in rural Wiltshire last year. “We wanted to enjoy it ourselves and let the children experience a different environment,” says Juan, 36, an insurance broker. “Sara decided our second home must be no more than a 2 1/2-hour drive, to make it workable for a weekend. The cottage, in Erlestoke, near Devizes, is exactly that.”

The couple paid £250,000 for the three-bedroom property after negotiating £20,000 off the price. They estimate that they need to rent it for at least six months a year, including the peak summer season, to cover the mortgage and other expenses. More than that and they will start to make a profit.

“We’re really pleased so far,” says Sara, 34, who lets out the cottage via Holiday Rentals. “Three weeks over Easter was booked, as is some of May, June and all August. We’ve had several families staying, and we’ve made it child-friendly, which we think has helped — there’s a buggy and toys we got for our own children, Ralph, who’s two, and Lilla, who’s seven months.

We store them when couples or older people are coming. With the open fire in the sitting room, it makes a romantic hideaway in the winter too.” The cottage is let for £565 a week in high season, £625 at Christmas and £475 in low season (holiday-rentals.co.uk/p415955 ).

Holiday lets are probably not going to give you a good return as conventional buy-to-lets: they require much more administration and, however hard you try, there will always be empty weeks. But they’re certainly more fun — even though, if your rental business goes well, you won’t spend as much time there as you’d like.

The best spots for holiday lets

Average price* Weekly rent (low/high season) (worst/best case) Gross yield

Newquay £173,938 £500-£1,050 10%-15.6%
Bath £160,000 £650-£840 9%-13%
Pembrokeshire coast £144,784 £350-£900 9%-12%
Stratford-upon-Avon £113,876 £400-£510 8%-12%
Torquay £154,037 £440-£750 9%-11%
Oxford £198,658 £575-£625 7.5%-12%
Brighton £230,616 £350-£900 6%-10%
Edinburgh £198,880 £520-£900 6%-9%
Bournemouth £173,595 £320-£640 6%-8%
Llandudno £105,461 £265-£460 5.5%-8%
Penrith £167,806 £300-£490 5%-7%

*Figures based on two-bed property, with room to sleep six
Source: Rightmove Automated Valuation Model

HAPPY HOLIDAYS What’s on offer in tourist hot spots

Cornwall £575,000

Watergate Bay, formerly a hotel catering to the bucket-and-spade brigade, has been converted into 29 boutique homes. This two-bedroom, two-bathroom flat comes with handy surfboard storage. It is two miles from Newquay. Knight Frank; 01392 848844, thevillagewatergatebay.com

Devon £69,950

In a converted Grade II-listed terrace in Torquay, this top-floor flat has one bedroom and sea views towards Corbyn Head from the living room and kitchen. Owners share the communal garden with lawns at the front. Torquay Real Estate; 01803 327287, torquayrealestate.com

Pembrokeshire £445,000

Built in the early 16th century, four-bedroom Plâs Farmhouse, just outside Narberth, is Grade II-listed and has been painted in an ochre limewash. It has a ground-floor dining room and living room, and a sitting room above the kitchen. Town Coast and Country Estates; 0870 145 3432, tccestates.com

Bath £425,000

On Great Pulteney Street, a magnificent Regency terrace, this first-floor flat within a converted Grade I-listed Georgian townhouse has two bedrooms, a bathroom, a drawing room with views over Henrietta Park — and a share of the freehold. Hamptons; 01225 312244, hamptons.co.uk

Cumbria £380,000

Set in one acre, Gill Farm, a traditional Cumbrian farmhouse, has three double bedrooms and two reception rooms. There is a range of attached stone barns that could be converted into holiday units. It is on the outskirts of Penrith. Michael CL Hodgson; 01539 721375, michael-cl-hodgson.co.uk

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