Nikitas wrote:Dinos said:
"The way I see it, the real long-term problem facing markets with significant amounts of holiday properties is going to rear it's head when retiring baby boomers start dying off. Lots of people croaking plus very few in a position to buy their second homes = potential problems worthy of further analysis."
Been thinking about this for some time now, more in connection with the demographic problem of Europe than the holiday home situation, although the two are connected.
The next generation, who will inherit the property owned by the present generation, will be fewer people as demographic studies show. Which means that wealth will be concentrated in fewer hands. Some countries with vicious tax policies, like the UK, will make it impossible to hold on to the property and, as buyers will be fewer, impossible to sell too, so the final choice will be to surrender the property to the state. In other countries with saner land policies the next generation is likely to contain a lot of landed people who will be rich, at least on paper. I wonder what the effects of this will be on society and the environment too.
Very good points raised vis-a-vis tax policies, etc. The same thing will happen stateside but will be more market driven. Even if the proverbial boomers were to leave a property to their kids, the kids are likely to be too stupid and / or undisciplined to share it amongst themselves. They'll be more likely to try and sell the properties and pocket the cash, which will sink prices drastically in states like Arizona, Florida, etc. Without concentrating on bringing business / industry in, post-boomer generations are likely to stay in states where they can make a decent salary.
My opinion, anyway, and is up for correction as the future unfolds...
