Holiday Rental Property - UK - June 2016
Overview
 
What you need to know 
After several difficult years, the holiday rental property market saw strong growth in 2015. Factors driving this growth have included lower oil prices (which have fed through in the form of reduced air fares and cheaper petrol), growth in the UK economy and the improved financial situation of many consumers. 

Looking ahead, headwinds may emerge in terms of a weaker Pound, depending on the outcome of the EU referendum, while the overseas market is also being affected by rebalancing on the part of airlines towards old favourite resorts in the Western Mediterranean which are seen as safer in the wake of a run of terrorist attacks targeting tourists in countries including Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt.

At a corporate level, the year was characterised by major operators making acquisitions and striking distribution deals with TripAdvisor in their attempts to try to scale up their operations and counter the growing threat from Airbnb.

Products covered in this Report
Holiday rental property refers to holiday lettings includes cottages, houses, villas, gites, chalets, lodges, town/city apartments, flats or just rooms in a house. Self-catering apartments on holiday resort complexes (eg Butlins or package resorts abroad) or other types of self-catering property such as camping and caravanning or boat hire are excluded here.

Data on the size and segmentation of the domestic market is for Great Britain rather than the United Kingdom (ie Northern Ireland is not included), sourced from GBTS (Great Britain Tourism Survey). Equivalent data for the overseas rental market is not available, but rentals abroad are covered in Mintel’s consumer research for this Report.