Vikram and Sunita Mehra had wanted a holiday home in Goa for as long as either could remember. By their early fifties, with the children at university and Vikram’s consultancy doing well, they had the money. They also had a shortlist of three villas and a broker eager to close. What they did instead, over about eighteen months, is a useful case study in renting versus buying a second home, and in how property that already exists can be made to earn when its owners are elsewhere. The Mehras are a composite, but every decision point below is one real buyers face.
The starting assumption
The couple’s reasoning was straightforward. They visited Goa three or four times a year. Hotels felt impersonal. A home of their own would be ready whenever they arrived, furnished the way they liked, and would appreciate over time. It seemed like a lifestyle purchase and an investment rolled into one.
Their financial adviser asked one question before anything else: “How many nights a year will you actually sleep there?” Sunita counted the past three years. The answer averaged a little over five weeks.
Running the numbers
The adviser laid out what owning would involve beyond the purchase price:
- Stamp duty and registration on purchase.
- Annual property tax and society or maintenance charges.
- A caretaker, because a villa left empty in coastal humidity deteriorates quickly.
- Regular repairs: roofing, waterproofing, paint, appliances, garden upkeep.
- Furnishing, and replacing furnishings as they wore out.
- Utilities that run even when nobody is home.
- Whatever income that lump sum might have generated had it stayed in their investment portfolio.
Spread across five weeks of personal use, the effective cost of each night they would spend in the villa was far higher than renting an equally comfortable private home for the same stays. Appreciation might narrow that gap over many years, but it was uncertain, and it would only be realised on sale.
For a structured way to think through this kind of commitment, the couple later found it helpful to read about planning property decisions against long-term goals.
The trial year: renting on purpose
Rather than abandon the idea, the Mehras agreed to a test. For twelve months they would rent comparable villas for every visit, in different parts of the state, and keep careful notes.
Several things surprised them.
- Variety was a benefit. They stayed near the beaches in the north on one trip and in a quieter village in the south on another. Owning would have tied them to one location.
- Nothing needed fixing. When a pump failed during one stay, it was the owner’s problem, solved within a day.
- Planning was easy. Booking a few weeks ahead was enough for most visits outside peak season.
- Getting around was flexible too. Instead of keeping a car in Goa, they rented one for each trip. On their last visit Vikram booked a self-drive car and a scooter on MotoShare, which lets visitors book bikes and cars from rental partners in places such as North Goa, and returned both when they left.
At the end of the year, their total spending on accommodation and transport in Goa was a fraction of what owning would have cost, even before counting the money that remained invested.
The other side of the market
The trial year also gave the Mehras a close look at the people renting to them. Many were owners in exactly the position Vikram and Sunita had nearly put themselves in: they had bought a holiday home, used it a few weeks a year, and turned to short-term rental to cover costs.
One owner, a retired engineer from Pune, was candid. “I bought it for us. Now it’s mostly for guests. That’s fine, it pays for itself and it doesn’t sit empty getting damp.” For him, opening the villa to renters had turned an idle, costly asset into one that roughly covered its own upkeep.
His wife added a practical note: the busiest weeks for guests were also the weeks the family would most like to visit themselves. Owners who rent out holiday homes often find they must choose between using the place and earning from it during peak season.
The decision
The Mehras did not buy a Goa villa. Their final reasoning was simple:
- Five weeks a year of use did not justify fifty-two weeks of ownership costs.
- Renting gave them more choice of location and less responsibility.
- Their capital stayed invested and liquid.
- If their use rose sharply, for example after Vikram retired, they could revisit the decision with better information.
They did buy something, eventually: a smaller apartment closer to their main home, which they could use frequently and, when travelling, let out to tenants. That purchase matched how often they would actually use the space.
Lessons for buyers in a similar position
The Mehras’ experience suggests a practical sequence for anyone considering a second home:
- Count real usage. Use past travel records, not hopes, to estimate nights per year.
- List every ownership cost. Include maintenance, staff, utilities, tax and opportunity cost, not just the price and the loan.
- Rent deliberately for a year. Treat it as research, and note what you value and what you do not.
- Study the owner side. Talk to people renting their homes out. Their experience shows what owning really involves.
- If you do buy, plan for idle time. Decide in advance whether the property will be rented out when you are not using it, and how that will be managed.
For high-value property, discreet professional advice helps at each of these steps; our piece on why strategy and confidentiality matter in premium property decisions covers what to expect from an adviser.
The broader point
Property is often treated as the ultimate thing to own. But a holiday home used a few weeks a year behaves much like any other occasionally used asset: it ties up money and attention while it sits empty. For many buyers, renting the experience when they want it, and leaving ownership to people who will keep the property busy, is the better deal. For those who already own, putting the property to work in the weeks they are away is the practical way to make the purchase pay. If Goa is on your own list, our planning notes for beaches, sights and dining around Goa are a good place to start your rental research.
