How to estimate occupancy rates

Hi everyone, 

 I'm about to complete on a 3 bed apartment in Medina Elvira outside Granada.  I'm working out rental options and potential income and wonder if anyone can advise what % of high, mid and low season occupancy I should estimate for.   The apartment is right on a golf course and is about 50 minutes from the mountains for skiing.   Any feedback would be useful as I'm very new to this!  Many thanks

Hi Absie and welcome to the forum!

You have asked an impossible question.  When I bought my property I was told by the agent I would get 30 - 40 weeks rental, then the agency they hired told me I'd be lucky to get 8.  They actually got me 1 week the first year!

The market is very slow for rentals as well as sales and my advice is:

• market your property to friends and family - that is where you will get the most rentals, at first anyway
• use all the free ads you can get - put it onto Eye on Spain for a start
• get a good management company - ask around and try to get recommendations
• you can use one of the big rental companies but remember you will be one in thousands of properties
• you need to keep the price really low as people are shopping around - don't expect to cover your mortgage
• if you can afford it, get yourself a nice website that is compliant and can be found by Google
• make sure your property is well furnished and well presented as competition is fierce

Sorry if that all sounds negative but I don't know anyone who is making money out of rentals at the moment.  If you can cover some of your costs then you are doing well.

All the best.

Hi Claire

Very useful information, thankyou!  Most appreciated.

 Also make sure it is user friendly and have 1 or 2 sofa beds in the lounge, sky tv if you are marketing to english or other language speakers other than spanish.

You need to promote it hard and push to make it stand out. Ensure your management agency are 24hours in case of emergencies and also will hand keys at any hour of the day or night.

We used to work on 4-6 weeks or each season. 

Good luck

Calculate the worst possible scenario .

 If you can cope  - then everything else is a bonus!   

Jo

Thank you for this guys.  The agents make it sound like the money's going to roll in!

Absie

i decided not to rent mine out via agents for a variety of reasons, I am fortunate in that I have a client bank within the UK of people known for many years and as such trusted, most important thing was a reliable cleaner of course two sets of all linen etc, colour coded per room so everyone knows where it all goes!

feel it is easier to promote if doing it yourself if you make a dvd of ther aprtment and the area as these are more "lifelike" than pictures and can be posted out quite cheaply due to weight etc, also bear in mind if you are openly advetising it then the taxman can also see this.

try to ensure you market it for half terms etc etc

good luck