Any estate agent will nowadays agree that owning an empty flat is an opportunity you should not miss. The boom in the property sales market and the scarcity of rentals open many avenues that can be explored in order to find a long-term profitable income. Generating an income from property has not been possible for years due to the economic crisis; however, things are changing now.
Long Term Rentals
This may be the least profitable option out of all the ones available to you, but the reality is that renting out your property for the long term comes with a number of advantages that should be taken into account carefully.
Without going any further, the possibility of having a recurring and stable income is one of the most significant of all the advantages offered by long-term rental of a property.
On the other hand, the letting procedure is the fastest of all that can be carried out. The current demand for rental properties is one of the highest known to date, so any property that is put on the market has a high chance of finding tenants within as little as 24 hours.
All this without the need to put the property up for sale as it's a long-term asset that will go up in value.
Holiday Rental
This option is only profitable for those who own a property in tourist areas. The centre of the most visited cities of Spain or any coastal town is a place with highest tourist rentals with an incomparable profit that is 4 or 5 times more than you can earn from a job.
This profitability is, however, not without its own difficulties. First of all, you must closely monitor the regulations in the area where your vacant flat is located at since the law on holiday rentals is always changing.
Similarly, the dedication that one must have with a holiday rental home is much greater than a long-term rental. The comings and goings of the tourists, the cleaning and maintenance tasks and the possible damages caused in the property are much more frequent than in other types of rentals, hence the reason why landlords are required to spend more time maintaining their property.
Sell the Empty Flat
This is a suggestion that we should not dismiss so quickly. Selling the property might be more favourable now that the market has recovered from the crisis. Although property prices have not yet reached the levels they had before, they are within acceptable figures and more than attractive to achieve a sale with the guarantee of obtaining a good profitability in this respect.
We should bear in mind that selling a vacant flat is even easier especially if it is mortgage free. In this case, profitability increases considerably, only if you are certain that selling it will be a better option and you won't be keeping it for any other reason.
Although selling the flat will eliminate all the other options like short-term or long-term letting, the truth is that at the moment it is one of the most attractive possibilities given the situation of the property market.
