Long Term Rental vs Short Term Holiday Home Rental

We have a lot of clients asking us for our opinion on whether they should rent their house out long term or do shorter-term holiday rentals.

This is a topic which is very much dependent on your personal circumstances and will typically come down to your preferences. When making the decision on which is most suited to you there are a couple of things that you should consider.

Legalities
From a legal standpoint when you rent long term you are generally covered under the Residential Tenancy Act. This act looks after both the property owner and the tenant. You need to adhere to this act if you are renting long term. If you are going down the path of holiday renting you may need to have resource consent for this. This information is available from the QLDC website here. The laws have recently changed on this so it’s best to make yourself familiar with what will be required.

Reference Checking Tenants
With long term rentals, you are able to reference check your tenants before they sign a lease for your property. This gives you peace of mind.
With holiday rentals you can’t reference check as such but websites like AirBNB and bookabach.co.nz do have really great reviews system which gives you a peace of mind in your tenants before you rent your property to them. Basically, anyone who rents through Air BNB needs to withhold to a certain level of respect for a property, so it is a well-thought-out system.

Time
Lastly it’s good just to check on how much time you will have to dedicate to your rental investment. Long term rentals tend to take a little less day to day work but then at the beginning and end of a lease, you will need more time available. Short term holiday rentals are more work-intensive as you have more turnover and the timing is a little less predictable. There is also the cleaning and servicing to think about.

Another option for consideration which allows you to have flexibility with the use of your house is a winter rental period where your property is rented for approx. 3-4 months over winter and then you can do a holiday rental on it over summer and use it when you like too. We have a lot of clients enjoying this option and it does suit property owners who like to use their holiday house here well.

Overall when you are renting out a property long or short term there is typically more to take into consideration than meets the eye and its best to chat with an experienced property management team like us to discuss your best-suited options.

Working with Manage My House will ensure that your property is managed with expertise and there is little input needed from your side of things. We look after both short term holiday rentals as well as long term rentals.