Mar 31st 2020 What should be considered when selling vacation accommodations?

A house in the Tyrolean Alps, an apartment in Paris or a villa in Tuscany - holiday accommodation in one of the most beautiful areas of Europe is a dream for many people. Many people use their holiday homes or apartments to relax and unwind in a different environment than home. Some, however, see it as a pure capital investment and rent out their holiday property to holiday guests. In order to combine the advantages of both forms of use, holiday accommodation is often used both by oneself and by others.

However, it is not uncommon for holiday accommodation to become a financial or time burden. Property owners often do not have the time to make sufficient use of their holiday property themselves. Or the administrative and maintenance costs of renting are too high for them. Then the time has come to think about selling your holiday accommodation.

How do you present a vacation rental for sale?

If you want to sell holiday accommodation, you should think about the condition of the property in advance. If the holiday home or holiday apartment is in poor condition, the owner should ideally invest in renovation. A run-down or even dilapidated holiday home is usually difficult to sell and even if it is, the sales price is usually very disappointing.

The presentation of the property is crucial to the success of selling holiday accommodation. This is particularly true for a real estate advertisement on the Internet. The best basis for a great presentation that will attract the interest of many potential buyers is high-quality photos. It goes without saying that the holiday accommodation will be kept clean and tidy for the photos. The higher quality the property appears in the ad, the higher the price can be set and the higher the chance of sale.

In addition, the photos should definitely document the current condition of the property. In the worst case, an interested buyer could notice deviations from the photo documentation in the advertisement when viewing the holiday accommodation. A floor plan should also be an integral part of the property presentation.

In addition to the photos, the descriptive text is the most important component of a real estate ad. Ideally, the photos and description match 100 percent so that potential buyers get a complete visual and textual picture of the property.

Selling or buying holiday accommodation involves a lot of emotions for both the seller and the buyer. Against this background, a good descriptive text should also be written emotionally. Sentences like “the panorama of the Tyrolean Alps right outside the windows” or “from your holiday accommodation to the ski slope in just two minutes” specifically appeal to the buyer’s emotions and can be a powerful argument for buying a property.

In addition to the property itself, the immediate surroundings or location should also be discussed in the description. Holiday home buyers are particularly interested in the infrastructure and attractions surrounding the holiday accommodation.

How do you attract interest from international buyers?

If you want to appeal to an international audience when selling your holiday accommodation, you should use the services of an experienced, local and internationally networked real estate agent. As a seller, you can also place a real estate ad on various real estate portals at home and abroad.

However, a local real estate agent has the advantage that he can usually very well assess the international interest in the respective real estate location. When selling holiday accommodation in the Tyrolean Alps, a local real estate agent brings much more know-how with regard to potentially interested international buyers than a foreign agent.

How is the sale of holiday accommodation taxed?

A very important issue when selling holiday accommodation is the question of taxation of the sales proceeds. Sellers should definitely familiarize themselves with their national tax legislation before making a sale. In this context, it is advisable to consult a tax advisor.

For German citizens, two factors play a crucial role when selling a property: firstly, the question of whether the property was used by the owner and secondly, the question of how much time has passed between the purchase and sale of the property.

According to German tax law, only the increase in value of a property is taxable, i.e. the difference between the purchase price and the sales price. However, there are exceptions.

In Germany there is a speculation period of ten years for real estate transactions. Anyone who has owned a property for more than ten years does not have to pay taxes on the profit from the sale. The sale of real estate is also tax-free if the property has been used by yourself or by family members for four years.

The tax situation is somewhat different if the holiday accommodation was rented out. In the case of a property used by someone else, in order to be exempt from tax, the owner must either wait for the ten-year speculation period or live in the apartment himself in the year of sale and in the two preceding years.

Incidentally, special tax regulations apply to the sale of holiday accommodation in certain countries such as France and Italy. To be on the safe side legally, property owners should contact a tax advisor when selling their holiday accommodation in these countries.