Is owning a bach cheaper than renting holidays?

Usually only if you use it a lot. A bach costs interest, rates, insurance and maintenance every year whether you visit or not, so unless you stay many nights a year, renting holiday accommodation often works out cheaper on pure cash flow.

What is the break-even nights figure?

It is the number of nights a year you would need to use the bach for its yearly cost to equal what you would otherwise pay to rent. Use it fewer nights and renting is cheaper; use it more and owning starts to pay.

What does owning offer beyond the numbers?

A bach is always available, can be made your own, may rise in value, and can earn short-stay income when you are not there. Those benefits sit outside this cash comparison, so weigh them alongside the figures.

Own a Bach vs Rent Holidays Calculator

This calculator compares the yearly cost of owning a bach or holiday home in New Zealand against simply renting holiday accommodation each year, and shows how many nights you would need to use a bach before owning pays off. Owning a slice of the coast is a Kiwi dream, but a bach is one of the most expensive ways to take a holiday if you do not use it much, because it costs money every single week of the year whether or not anyone is there. Mortgage interest, council rates, insurance and maintenance roll on through the winter months when the place sits empty. Renting, by contrast, costs only when you actually go. You enter the bach's annual costs, then the nights you would holiday each year and the nightly rate to rent somewhere similar, and the calculator works out the yearly cost of owning, the yearly cost of renting the same holidays, the difference, and the break-even number of nights at which owning matches renting. The honest result for most people is that renting is cheaper on cash flow unless the bach is used heavily. That said, owning brings things the numbers miss: it is always there, it can rise in value, and it can earn short-stay income when you are away, so weigh those alongside the figures. Estimates only, not advice.

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Interest a year

Rates a year

Insurance a year

Maintenance a year

Holiday nights a year

Rent per night

Renting holidays costs about $18,550 less a year

cash comparison, before capital growth and personal use

Cost of owning a year$24,800

Cost of renting a year$6,250

Break-even nights99

Owning costs apply all year whether you visit or not. Capital growth, personal use and short-stay income sit outside this cash comparison. Estimate only.

How it works

The cost of owning a year is interest plus rates plus insurance plus maintenance. The cost of renting is your holiday nights times the nightly rate. The difference shows which is cheaper. The break-even nights figure is the yearly cost of owning divided by the nightly rate, the number of nights at which renting would cost the same as owning.

Worked example

A bach costing 18,000 dollars interest, 2,500 rates, 1,800 insurance and 2,500 maintenance is 24,800 dollars a year. Holidaying 25 nights at 250 dollars is 6,250 dollars to rent, so renting is about 18,550 dollars cheaper. You would need about 99 nights a year for owning to break even.

Related calculators

Holiday Home Cost: full holiday home costs.
Airbnb Nightly Rate: short-stay income.
Short Stay Income: letting it out.
Rent vs Buy: home ownership.

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