TNAG-1558-FCO40-2122-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-and-passports-Hong-Kong-(Br-1986 — Page 141

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for--and supply of--holiday homes and apartments. Most northern Europeans seem to prefer to rent a villa for their three to four week vacation rather than stay in a hotel.

Also, like the south of Spain, southern Portugal is home to thousands of expatriates from Britain and elsewhere in northern Europe who prefer sunshine and a low cost of living for their retirement years (see cost of living, below).

However, for prime rental returns you should aim for property which is well-located for the vacation market. Such a property will command a rental of several hundred dollars per week. While it will not be rented all year round, the returns will be substantially higher than renting to a retired person or couple.

For this market, location is of key significance. To select a property which will attract the highest rentals for the vaca- tion market, you need to understand the different holiday seasons in the Algarve region.

The peak season is the northern summer: the months of June, July, August, and the first two weeks of September. July and August are the months of highest demand for vacation rental accommodation.

If you own a prime vacation property, you can expect it to be fully occupied from June to the first half of September.

In

There are also two other "peak" vacation rental seasons in southern Portugal. They are the months of April and the first half of May; and the second half of September plus October. the mid-summer months, the demand is from sun-seekers. In the other "peak" periods, the demand is from golfers.

If you own a prime vacation rental property which is close to a beach and a golf course, you can expect your "peak" rental demand to run from April to October. Should your property only satisfy one of those demands--either near a beach or near a golf course, but not both--then you will only be able to command peak rents for two or three months of the year, not six or seven.

Even with the freezing northern winters, the dead months for vacation rentals are January, February, and the latter half of December. These months are gaining in popularity due to the mild Portuguese winters, so if you owned a prime vacation rental pro- perty, it could be rented almost all year round.