Buying a holiday home sounds idyllic, doesn’t it? Lazy weekends away, sea breezes, and a place that’s all yours.
But before you take the plunge, it’s worth asking whether this dream stacks up—financially, practically, and emotionally.

As someone who’s spent years helping people make smarter property decisions, I’ve seen how easily a romantic impulse can become a long-term burden.
So, if you’re tempted by a “weekender,” here are 14 reasons to pause and take a closer look.

Key takeaways: 

• A holiday home rarely outperforms a well-located city property—so know your opportunity cost.
• Consider how often you’ll truly use it; the novelty wears off faster than you think.
• If you’re after freedom and variety, renting different holiday homes may bring more joy (and less stress) than owning one.

1. Will you really use it? If it’s not within a 2 hour drive, you will start to find reasons not to get in the car. If your kids are in Saturday sport you’ll only make it there during school holidays.
   
2. You’ll suddenly have a lot of new friends. They might even get more use of it than you do. Freeloaders aren’t the best friends to have…
   
3. Maintenance is a huge cost and responsibility, particularly in coastal & bush areas.
   
4. Can you find a trusted local to keep an eye on it? Cleaning, gardening, maintenance, giving access for trades when needed… all difficult to do from afar.
   
5. Land tax. Ouch… Depending on the unimproved land value, you could be up for an annual bill in the tens of thousands of dollars.
   
6. Do you know how much to pay? City dwellers often buy weekenders wearing rose coloured glasses and decide on value relative to where they live. In other words, a place might seem like “a bargain” compared to what you can get close to home but is really over-priced when you consider where it is.
   
7. Are you picking the right time of the market cycle to buy? The weekender market has distinct peaks and troughs. Be careful of buying when there is a lot of demand, because prices come off the boil very quickly when city prices stop growing and they take a long time to recover.
   
8. Limited capital growth. Sea change and tree change areas simply don’t have the drivers that create sustainable market growth, so the value of your holiday home will climb at a slower rate than a city property of equivalent value.
   
9. Opportunity cost. Further to the point above, by committing to a holiday home, you’ll be foregoing growth that you could achieve by investing your money and borrowing capacity elsewhere.
   
10. They are extremely illiquid. It’s hard to find a buyer quickly for a holiday home so if you have made a mistake, or if you need to sell for any reason, you could get trapped.
    
11. You can’t rely on short-term rental to offset the mortgage. Seasonality affects demand, as does the availability of competing listings, so the occupancy & returns will both be patchy. Plus, this is a segment of the market that is vulnerable to new regulation.
    
12. Possibility of bad neighbours who are really hard to manage from a distance. If they are permanent residents, they could trash your dreams of advertising your holiday home for short-term rental. Or they could have a sense of proprietorship over your property which can cause problems. Or they could also be weekenders who rent their home as a party house.
    
13. You might get bored going to the same place all the time and stop using it.
14. It’s cheaper and easier to rent somebody else’s holiday home when you feel like getting away from it all. Plus, you get the chance to try out many different locations and enjoy the change of scenery… literally.

Buying a holiday home is rarely about logic. It’s about emotion—nostalgia, escape, identity.
And that’s not wrong! But it’s where emotion meets a large financial commitment that people often get stuck.

I’ve seen plenty of clients make the mistake of treating a weekender like an investment. Most aren’t. They’re lifestyle assets. That’s fine if you can afford it—but if it stretches you financially or limits your ability to grow your wealth elsewhere, you might find the dream becomes a drain.

So before you jump in, pause. Ask yourself not just “Can I buy this?” but “Should I?”

Let’s Talk Property Strategy

Dreaming of a weekender? Or trying to balance lifestyle with long-term financial goals?
I can help you unpack the pros and cons and plan a smarter path forward.

A practical chat to help you make confident, informed decisions—without the rose-coloured glasses.