Skip to main content

    A woman buys pies in a Peak District Farmers Market.

    Best Peak District Farmers and Artisan Markets

    Eat Well! Fabulous Farmers’ Markets and Farm Shops in the Peak District

    Mouthwatering Local Produce at Buxton Farmers Markets

    You’re thoroughly spoilt for choice for farmers and other local food producers in the Peak District. Here is our list of favourite markets that are heavy on selling local produce. So, if you want a self-catering holiday where you can buy, cook and eat deliciously well while keeping your food travel miles low, view our recommended list of Peak District markets. You’ll find the necessary ‘what-where-and-when’ information for all the markets mentioned at the bottom of this article. 

    One of our favourite pastimes when holidaying in the Peak District, one of our favourite past-times when is visiting the farmers’ markets and enticing foodie shops.

    Bakewell Farmer’s Market is one of the largest farmers’ markets in the UK and generally takes place on the last Saturday of every month except for December. The market takes place undercover at the Agricultural Business Centre, less than a two-minute walk from the centre of Bakewell. Ample parking is adjacent to the farmer’s market, with straightforward access for wheelchairs and prams. We advise getting there early to stock up on your favourite goodies in case the stallholders sell out.

    Valley View  in Dovedale 

    The Buxton Farmers Market is also great for visiting with farmers, growers, and producers selling directly to the public. Some choices on offer include locally reared meats, home-baked cakes, loaves of bread and handmade chocolates, smoked fish and pates, and locally grown vegetables. It is held in the Pavilion Gardens, usually on the first Thursday of the month. There is easy disabled access.

    Another promising market to visit is the Leek Fine Food market, held every third Saturday of the month. The market features homemade pies and cakes, local cheeses, speciality preserves, artisan bread, locally produced ice cream, locally farmed meats, honey, and much more. All stalls are located in Leek Market Place.

    Some of the other farmer’s markets well worth a visit are Chesterfield (second Thursday of the month), Belper (second Saturday of the month), Hathersage (first Saturday of the month) and Matlock (third Saturday of the month).

    Riverside House, Buxton. Sleeps 12.

    We also love visiting Chatsworth Farm Shop when we are staying in the Peak District, and why not take in Chatsworth House at the same time? It is open nearly all year round except Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and it is one of the best farm shops in the country. 

    Delights include the butcher’s counter, fresh fish counter, fresh fruit and vegetables, a fantastic delicatessen, and a great selection of wines and beers. There is plenty of parking even on busy weekends, and helpful staff will guide you to foodie heaven.

    Finally, if you are staying in the Peak District and want to make the most of your self-catering cottage’s kitchen, we highly recommend Sauced Here (you may have seen them on the recent BBC Countryfile programme on the Peak District). Luke from Sauced Here runs an online shopping company where all the products listed are sourced from the Peak District. He will deliver to any location in the Peak District. We love the fresh meat and cheeses he supplies - an excellent treat for a holiday cottage break.  

     

    How and where to find the Markets in this blog:

    Sauced Here: Delivered to Your Holiday Cottage

    Sauced Here:

    Website: https://www.mypeakevent.co.uk/catering

    When: 365 days of the year

    Time: Online 24/7 Orders delivered.

    Find it at:

    Unit 1

    Longstone Lane

    Ashford-in-the-Water

    Derbyshire

    DE45 1NH

    T: 07842 302 210

     

    Chatsworth Farm Shop:

    Website: https://www.chatsworth.org/shop-dine/farm-shop

    When: Open all year apart from Boxing Day and New Year’s Day

    Time: 9.00 am – 6.00 pm

    Find this market at: 

    Chatsworth

     Bakewell

     Derbyshire

     DE45 1PP

     

    Leek Fine Food market

    Website: https://www.visitpeakdistrict.com/whats-on/leek-fine-food-market-p813691

    When: 3rd Saturday of the month

    Find this market at Leek Market Place, Leek, Staffordshire, ST13 5HH

    Tel: 07766 160492

     

    Bakewell Farmers Market: 

    Website: https://www.whatsonbakewell.co.uk/regular-events/bakewell-farmers-market

    Find it at the Agricultural Business Centre, Bakewell. DE45 1AH

    Tel: 01629 813777 

    When: Last Saturday of the month

    Time: 9.00m-2.00pm

     

    Buxton Farmers’ Market:

    Website: https://www.visitbuxton.co.uk/farmers-markets/

    Find it at The Pavilion Gardens, St. John’s Road, Buxton, SK17 6BE

    When: First Thursday in the month

    Time: 9.30 am – 2.30 pm

     

    Chesterfield Artisan Market:

    https://www.chesterfield.co.uk/events/chesterfield-artisan-market/

    Find it at Market Place, Chesterfield

    Tel: 07789 181677

    When: Last Sunday in the month

    Time: 10.00 – 4.00 pm

     

    Belper Farmers Market:

    https://www.visitpeakdistrict.com/whats-on/belper-farmers-market-p753511

    When: 2nd Saturday of the month

    Time: 

    Find it at Market Place, Belper, Derbyshire, DE56 1HX

    Tel: 01773 822116

     

    Hathersage Farmers Market:

    Website: Not currently online.

    When: Monthly at weekends. These vary but are listed on the website 

    Time: 10:00 am – 3.00 pm

    Find it at Memorial Hall, Oddfellows Road, Hathersage, Hope Valley

    Tel: 07814 311181

     

    View More Peak District Blogs

    Discover The Peak District in Full Autumn Glory

    Self-Catering Holidays in the Peak District for Cyclists

    6 Hard-to-Ignore Reasons to Visit The Peak District in February

    9 Things to Do For Free on Holiday in The Peak District

    Our Favourite Dog-Friendly Pubs in the Peak District

    A woman holds up a Flight Free pledge certificate.

    Sign the Flight Free Holiday Pledge

    My Favourite Holiday Cottages is keen to encourage people not to fly to their holidays whether in the UK or further field. That's why we support the Flight Free UK campaign, which encourages people to pledge not to fly for a whole year.

    Some of the most beautiful corners of the UK are nowhere within easy reach of an airport but easily accessible by car or train. And in any case, why be responsible for dumping an extra tonne or two of CO2 into the atmosphere when you fly when there are so many friendlier alternatives to holidaying by plane?

     

    A Whole year without flying: Just think of the places you can go! 

    We invited Anna Hughes, Director of Flight Free UK, to explain why it's not just important to cut back on flying but absolutely essential in the race to cool the earth.

    Flight Free UK is a behaviour change campaign that encourages people to fly less. We run the flight free 2020 pledge, asking people to take a year off flying, and are aiming for 100,000 people to pledge.

    We Brits love to fly – in fact, UK residents fly more than any other nation. And while most people would not respond to a request never to fly again, setting it as a challenge for a set period of time gives people the chance to break a habit and see what life without flying is really like. This is partly about collective action – we often feel that, as individuals, our actions don’t make a difference, so we don't bother trying. But it’s also about shifting the norm away from flying.

    It’s essential that we move away from fossil fuels if we are to have a sustainable future. Most people are growing more aware of the carbon impact of their diets, energy use, clothing and transport, but awareness and action remain low when it comes to flying. Those of us who do the recycling and eat less meat perhaps feel that we're doing enough. But a single flight can wipe out all the savings made through other areas. For example, giving up your car might save 2.6 tonnes of CO2 per year – but fly to LA, and you’ve topped that. By switching to a plant-based diet, you’ll save roughly 1 tonne – and you can blow all that good C02-reducing work away on a single flight to Cyprus.

    The good news is, not flying doesn’t mean not travelling. There are many other ways to get around, which are far lower carbon. Train travel can be up to 90% lower in emissions than flying; coach travel has around a 70% reduction. Ferries can also significantly lower your emissions. We are so lucky to live in the UK: the whole of Europe is on our doorstep, and rail connections mean we can quickly and easily travel long distances in a way that is much more enjoyable and relaxing than flying.

    But of course, we don't have to travel abroad to have a holiday at all. There are a huge number of destinations under our noses here in the UK. Scotland and Wales have some of the most breathtaking scenery in the whole of Europe, and Devon and Cornwall have long been popular spots for a beach holiday. More than that, there is a real value in slowing down and appreciating what is on our doorstep rather than constantly wishing to be somewhere else.

    It’s easy to be seduced by cheap prices and short flight times when we want a quick getaway. But it’s not always cheaper to fly, especially when you've added all the ‘extras’. And it’s certainly not much quicker, especially short-haul: for domestic travel, you can at least double the advertised flight time once you factor in time spent in transfers, check-in and baggage claim.

    There is a lot that the government can do to make the structural changes that we so desperately need in order to make it easier for people to choose sustainable transport. There is currently no tax on aviation fuel, which makes it a falsely cheap way to travel, something that definitely needs to change.

    But we shouldn't underestimate our power as consumers. The decisions we make about how we travel and how we spend our money can have an impact on the industry, as demonstrated by rail revival on the continent and a 9% drop in domestic air travel in some countries.

    Northam Burrows near Westward Ho!

    So could you be one of the 100,000 to take a flight-free year? We have many inspiring stories of people who have taken the pledge on our website. It is a small thing for many of us to take one year off flying, but something that can make a huge difference for us and the generations to come.

     

    Pledge here: flightfree.co.uk

    Anna Hughes, Director, Flight Free UK

    A Year in the Wilds of North Devon: July to December

    It’s summer at Beer Mill in Clawton, and the temptation to head straight to the nearby beaches around Bude should definitely be indulged, but take a day or just an hour to sit in the garden. Wander the nature trails, close your eyes and listen to the true sounds of summer; the bees and insects are busy with their lives; use your sense of smell and get close to the flowers and the hay; look into nooks and crannies to find the hidden colours and observe the lifecycles of the wildlife around you – tell us what you see, we miss things every day so extra help from guests at Beer Mill is very welcome.

    As we have just passed midsummer’s eve, the ponds are teaming with wildlife, so have a go at pond dipping – at first glance, there’s nothing in the net but mud. 

    Take another look …….ferocious carnivores of the pond, the great diving beetle! Froglets, toadlets, and newts (yes, many do survive the attack of the predators) scatter at your footsteps, dragonflies and damselflies cling precariously to stems while drying their wings, ready for the final stages of their lives (keep a look out for empty exoskeletons on the grasses around the ponds)

    Wise birds love Beer Mill!

    An evening sitting in the garden of the Stone Barn at this time of year can be enriching from a wildlife-watching point of view, especially with a chilled beer, glass of wine or a cup of tea – as dusk falls, the creatures of the night get busy: brown long-eared bats, pipistrelles, and five other recorded species of bats set off on their nightly hunting forays, flitting around the garden and hedgerows in pursuit of their prey – tiny insects and moths. 

     If you are lucky, you might glimpse one of our beautiful barn owls glide through the garden at about head height on the hunt for voles and mice – they have babies to feed, and it’s the young owlets you will hear with a harsh, rasping and persistent call from nearby.

    Hedgehogs forage on the edges of the garden looking for beetles and slugs – yummy; keep an eye out for them on the approach track if returning late.

    For some, it is time to fly south, and our warblers begin to leave; what so soon! For others, it’s the perfect time to have their young: plenty of rich meadows to feed mothers and long grasses and undergrowth for hiding newborns. Both roe deer and red deer thrive here and give birth during summer months, although they can be spotted on the trails all year round.

    From mid-August onwards, we feel the gradual change beginning as the first blackberries ripen in the hedgerows – the first ones are always delicious and the best and a great source of food for many hedgerow dwellers and feeders – our dormice, wood mice, voles and harvest mice are eating non-stop in this time of plenty. The blackberries are followed by rosehips, haws, elderberries, sloes and more - it’s a forager’s bonanza.

    Before you know it, it’s September, mainly because we are so busy harvesting in the veg plot that we don’t look up. The swallows are gathering, ready to leave, and the last of the warblers have gone. 

    The nights begin to draw in, and the trees begin to hint that autumn is coming, but not before offering us their bounty of sweet chestnuts, hazels, beech mast, acorns and conkers – who can resist?

     

    October, November, and December

    Hooray, we’ve passed the equinox, and it’s autumn – no, I am not off my rocker (yet)! The sea is at its warmest and best for swimming and surfing, so we are guilty of nipping off to the beach for an end-of-season dip. The leaves begin to turn beautiful autumn hues and fall to the ground, providing a crisp, warm carpet for so many invertebrates. The hibernators, bats, hedgehogs and dormice are fattening up before going into hiding.

    Meanwhile, the red deer stags gather to decide dominance, although the camera traps have revealed footage of stags of various ages getting along quite peacefully when hidden in the woods. The females also gather and find cosy, sheltered spots to settle down at night with their young.

    This is now the best time of year for surveying for dormice and harvest mice nests, and reporting our findings to Devon Wildlife Trust and the Devon Mammal Society. 

    These small mammals play a vital part in our native ecosystem along with the bank and field voles, wood mice and shrews – yet so little is known about them, how many there are, and where they still survive. We have learned so much by volunteering and getting involved in these projects.

    Without these little creatures, we wouldn’t have owls or many other top predators like the elusive stoats, weasels, and even true polecats, all of which have been recorded here at Beer Mill.

    Sightings of all these exciting animals are a matter of luck, but tracks and signs are always around if you know where to look and keep your eyes open!

    The animals that move a bit slower are easier to find, but they are no less exciting. Many moths and butterflies overwinter in various stages of their metamorphosis; some of our favourites are caterpillars like the elephant hawk moth…

    Caterpillars and our other invertebrates are a vital food source for many resident bird populations, although the elephant hawk moth looks quite a mouthful, even for a robin!

    And so the year draws to a close with a picture of our favourite Christmas bird, but surely not without a snowy picture? Surprisingly, it snows most winters but rarely lasts….a great excuse to curl up beside the log fire and wait for the year to start all over again.

    The Robin: Britain’s favourite bird

    And so the year draws to a close with a picture of our favourite Christmas bird, but surely not without a snowy picture? Surprisingly, it snows most winters but rarely lasts….a great excuse to curl up beside the log fire and wait for the year to start all over again.

     

    Where To Stay

    Discover the delights of a rural or beach holiday in a North Devon holiday cottage.

     

    More North Devon Articles For You to Read

    ·       A Year in the Wilds of North Devon: July to December

    ·       A Year in the Wilds of North Devon: January to June

    ·       How to Spend Seven Days in North Devon – and Seven Cottages in Which to Stay

    ·       Weekend Theatre Breaks in North Devon at The Barnstaple Fringe Fest

    ·       Six Secret Beaches in North Devon and Cornwall

    ·       Fishy Goings-on in North Devon

    ·       Fishy Goings-on in North Devon

    ·       My Favourite Beaches in North Devon

    ·      Quince Honey Farm In North Devon. Open All Year.

    Rabbit Friendly Beer Mill

    A Year in the Wilds of North Devon: January to June

    A holiday where experiences are genuinely wild: Guests staying in Beer Mill at Stone Farm enjoy more than the usual comforts of a well-maintained rural holiday cottage. Where most countryside properties offer a lovely garden, this remote holiday cottage between Bude and Clovelly in North Devon gives its guests their own conservation area to roam. No matter in which month you choose to travel to this little West Country paradise, there’s always something to discover as you wend your way from the woodland glade to the chuckling stream of this natural (occasionally muddy) rural wonderland.

    Let’s start early in the year when things first begin to stir...

    January, February, March – you might be forgiven for thinking that there’s not much going on in the wilds of North Devon at this time of year; most wildlife is hunkered down or hibernating while we humans are huddled indoors waiting for the winter to pass! Well, think again! We venture out along the nature trails of the Beer Mill Conservation Project every day, and when we’re not there, we have ‘spy’ cameras out, capturing the wildlife activity we miss when we sit indoors sipping tea.

    Here’s a glimpse into what you might be missing: in early January, for several years running, we have sent in the first records of frogs spawning in Devon from as early as the 4th of January! The frogs are singing, and you have to be quiet to hear them, but it’s pretty remarkable. For us, it’s a sign that the nights are already shrinking. 

    These native amphibians are filling the ponds, ditches, and even tyre tracks with frogspawn, which is the next generation! In a healthy ecosystem, it’s not surprising that this busy activity attracts attention from other wildlife. We see this plentiful food supply (sorry, frogs!) falling prey to otters, tawny owls, foxes (they don’t like to get their feet wet!), buzzards, herons, corvids (usually cleaning up after the others) and the graceful grey herons.

    These winter months are a great time for capturing the strange light that is only here when the sun is low in the sky. Wild snowdrops abound in the hedgerows, and redwing, fieldfare and starlings flock together, moving from field to field feeding. Common snipe, visiting from colder climates, fly out unexpectedly, making their distinctive alarm call as they are disturbed from their hiding places in the wet grasslands, which provides them with shelter and camouflage. Woodcock return loyally to their winter hiding places each year and are startled awake as we pass through the woods.

    Through these winter months, we are already looking out for the first glimpse of a butterfly: we’ve spotted brimstone, peacocks and red admirals in February.

    A Red Admiral butterfly spreads its wings for the camera.

    Soon after, the first flight of orange tips appeared, taking advantage of the woodland flowering plants such as common dog violet and miniature wild daffodils in March. Of course, some of the flowers get trampled by the rolling antics of the badgers who put their heads above ground to play, groom, stretch, feed and do a little housekeeping! Meanwhile, moles, who live solitary lives, are getting together to make babies and molehills appear in groups across the rough meadows, perfect for our school groups to make into molehill palaces! There’s nothing like a good spring clean and a belly full of beetles. 

    Before you know it, the toads are spawning, and it feels like spring is here. The toad spawn is laid in long strings and looks very different from the frogs. It all seems to happen rather suddenly, with the toads forming large ‘balls’ of animals as many males each try to mate with a female; she is often overwhelmed!

    April, May, and June – Busier than an international airport! Winter migrants are leaving, and summer visitors are arriving from distant lands. We welcome swallows, house martins, passing swifts, chiffchaffs, blackcaps, whitethroats, grasshoppers and willow warblers when they return from their travels to nest, swelling the numbers of resident birds. The dawn chorus is worth waking up for and jumping out of bed for! (but not every day).

    English Bluebells form carpets of blue in the woods

    Wildflowers abound, especially in the woodlands, before the trees become leaves. Our native bluebells spread out across the ‘ghost’ ancient woodland, sanicle lines the pathways of the Woodpecker wood, marsh marigolds and wild garlic fill up unlikely spaces, and the air fills with some powerful perfumes.

    With longer daylight hours and the sun’s warmth, invertebrates are breeding, providing food for the birds and mammals further up the food chain. Herbivores are fattening on the new green growth of grasses and shoots, and babies are everywhere while hunters, both large and small, are out and about, needing to feed their families.

     

    Find North Devon holiday cottages to enjoy memorable winter and spring breaks in this beautiful, unspoilt corner of the West Country.

     

    View More North Devon blogs

    ·       A Year in the Wilds of North Devon: July to December

    ·       How to Spend Seven Days in North Devon – and Seven Cottages in Which to Stay

    ·       Weekend Theatre Breaks in North Devon at The Barnstaple Fringe Fest

    ·       Six Secret Beaches in North Devon and Cornwall

    ·       Fishy Goings-on in North Devon

    ·       Fishy Goings-on in North Devon

    ·       My Favourite Beaches in North Devon

    ·      Quince Honey Farm In North Devon. Open All Year.

    A train glides along a track overlooking a large sandy beach near St.Ives. Photo credit: Mark Lynham

    Book a Holiday Cottage at The End of The Line. Photo credit: Mark Lynham

    Fancy somewhere different? Be a little spontaneous! Discover new corners of the UK when you book a weekend or midweek break in a holiday cottage somewhere at the end of the line.

    Juliet Cottage, Stratford-upon-Avon - the end of the line for Shakespeare? View cottage

    There must be hundreds of excuses to book a weekend break, from the desire to get away from it all in a rural retreat to a couple of nights being lulled asleep to the sounds of waves crashing on a nearby beach in a seaside cottage.

    But how about a voyage of discovery to a less-travelled corner of the UK?

    For travellers with a sense of adventure, here’s the perfect idea for a weekend or midweek getaway. Find and book a holiday cottage at the end of the line. Leave your car at home (or the station car park) and book tickets to a station at the end of a line. For those unsure where ‘the end of the line is’, there’s a list of thirty-one termini stations below. Each link towns to a page of cottages within taxi distance of the station to catch your fancy. 

    Top Tip: The earlier in advance, you book your train tickets, the cheaper they will be. 

    Save money or pamper yourselves with affordable First Class tickets. For train times and prices, go to Trainline.

    As well as being an environmentally friendly way to travel, there’s the joy of the journey as you race or trundle through magnificent scenery (the sea wall at Dawlish en route to Cornwall in Devon or Highland views on the way to The Kyle of Lochalsh. You can eat, read, snooze, and even surf the internet when not window gazing.

    Explore The Monsal Trail in the Peak District. Stay at Derwent House, Matlock. View Cottage

    Most trains will accept bikes if you plan a cycling weekend, but you may need to reserve a space for them in advance, so check before you leave home. Check the train company website you’ll be using for their bicycle policy. For cycling holidays, try The Tarka Trail from Barnstaple or The Monsal Trail, which can be reached via Buxton in the Peak District.

    You can take pets on holiday by train, too, and you’ll find plenty of pet-friendly holiday cottages to tempt you. They can travel free of charge, usually a maximum of two pets per passenger, and must always be on a lead.

    Discover the everyday delights of small market towns or seaside resorts from St. Ives in Cornwall to the Kyle of Lochalsh on the West Coast of Scotland – and enjoy the journey through the Great British countryside.

    The UK bristles with little destinations not known as visitor hotspots but perfect for walking weekends, such as moorland walks in Matlock and Blaenau Ffestiniog or beach-comber walks in Falmouth and Exmouth. 

    Turn every day into an adventure, discover local produce markets's delights (what self-catering holidays were designed for), or visit art galleries such as The Tate in St. Ives. Make it a culinary weekend and discover superb delicatessens and restaurants from Llandudno to Whitby.

     

    The My Favourite Holiday Cottages Railway Terminus List

    Here is our list of thirty-one UK station termini where cottages are advertised on this site. We’ve selected those stations where the only way out is back the way you came in.

    Here, you can find large, small, grand and cosy holiday cottages to rent for a short break or more extended holiday. Click on the link to view the cottages advertised in each location. You will find a town description and suggestions for things to 'go see do' on each page.

     

    1.  Oban
    2.  Windermere
    3.  Scarborough
    4.  Whitby
    5.  Saltburn
    6.  Ilkley
    7.  Buxton
    8.  Matlock
    9.  Stratford-upon-Avon
    10.  Llandudno
    11.  Lympstone
    12.  Holyhead    
    13.  Pwllheli
    14.  Blaenau Ffestiniog
    15.  Fishguard Harbour
    16.  Pembroke Dock
    17.  Barnstaple
    18.  Exmouth
    19.  Paignton
    20.  Looe
    21.  Falmouth
    22.  St. Ives
    23.  Penzance
    24.  Newquay
    25.  Weymouth
    26.  Lymington
    27.  Ryde

       

       

    Please email us (info@mfhc.co.uk) a tale of your trip, sharing what you discovered and in which cottage you stayed. We’ll publish it on our News pages.

    For more on sustainable travel, holidays read: Sign The Flight-Free Pledge: Enjoy Holidays That Don’t Cost the Earth.

    Luxury North Devon Eco Lodge on the North Devon coast

    Buying A Holiday Cottage

    Are you buying a holiday property to rent out? 

     

    Before you start calling estate agents, here are ten questions you must ask yourself.

    If you need advice to answer any of these questions, contact us (our help is freely given). Just have a pen and paper to hand! We'll do our best to help you.

     

    1. Why am I doing this?

    What's your motivation? An investment? Annual profits? Somewhere to stay yourself? The answers will help you determine what and where you should buy, the implications for property management, and tax and revenue expectations.

     

    2. How will you pay for it?

    Work out what you can afford. Are you a cash buyer, or will you need a Buy-to-Let Mortgage? Cumberland Building Society offers useful BTL Mortgages for short-term holiday properties.

    Can you afford the monthly repayments? This will help you determine your budget and possible locations to search for a property. For example, a £400,000 property in Croyde, North Devon, would cost a lot less ten miles further along the coast near Bideford. Allow around 15% for other attached costs involved in the purchase and essential maintenance, decoration, and inventory expenditures to bring the property into a rentable state.

     

    3. Will you rent it as a holiday home all year round - or just for a few weeks when you don't plan to use it yourself?

    If you want to offset the cost of managing and maintaining your property against revenue from rental, you will need to let it for at least 140 days a year (which means having it on the market a lot longer to hit your target. You will need to consider tax implications if you want it for your personal use with a few lettings outside that time.

     

       4. Old or New?

    Do you want to convert a barn, restore an old cottage, or buy a new property? This depends on whether you want a character property with the potential to increase its resale value (but with a lot of work necessary to achieve that) or an 'off the peg' new home built to modern building and environmental standards.

    Keep in mind that location is key to a property's rental potential. Finding a good-looking house on a residential street can be challenging. Character houses tend to have more appeal unless you're looking at beach apartments, but they tend to have higher maintenance costs.

     

    5. How will you manage the maintenance of your property, including cleaning and gardening? Will you be living on the premises or nearby, or will you need to find and rely upon a team of people, including but not limited to cleaners and a gardener? If you live outside the area, you'll need to find a pretty good plumber, electrician, etc., who does 24-hour callouts (emergencies always seem to occur 'after-hours').

     

    6. How will you market it? Will you do it yourself or through an agent? You've got to get those bookings somehow. You may want to market the property yourself rather than pay commission and probably some other fixed costs to an agent to get bookings for you. If you do, factor in the price of building and maintaining a website plus Internet advertising on reputable holiday cottage directory sites such as My Favourite Holiday Cottages. Put together a marketing plan and budget of at least 5% of your expected rental income.

     

    7. Income: How do you work out prices and estimate bookings? Do some local research to help you work out rental prices. Find properties similar to yours near your property and look at their prices. Also, look at how many bookings they have. You'll also need to decide on a price strategy so you won't let it at one price all year round! Decide what tariff bands will work best and whether or when you will allow weekend end or midweek breaks.

     

    8. Location: Where do you want to be and why? Very important if you're going to max out on rental income. Don't buy somewhere cheap and think you can charge the same rental prices as a similar-sized property in a more expensive area. Again, using the North Devon example, Ilfracombe and Croyde are two seaside reports less than eight mails apart. However, rental prices in Croyde can be twice those in Ilfracombe for similar properties. 

    When you first start to let, you won't have the comfort of having repeat bookings, so you must be competitive. Top tip: Read estate agents' descriptions carefully and research. There's a world of difference between the phrase 'Uninterrupted views' and Uninterruptable views'.

     

    9. What's your get-out plan? Is this a long-term or short-term thing? Do you plan to sell it at a profit or leave it to the kids? What if it goes wrong or there are other unforeseen circumstances—will you need to be confident of selling it quickly? You will find it very reassuring to know that you can exit from the business should you need to without it being a complete disaster. Working out your options before buying will help you choose your property and location.

     

    10. How much will it cost to run? Aside from maintenance costs (and you'll be redecorating and replacing furniture more frequently than a domestic household, you'll need to note fixed and variable costs. Fixed costs include council tax and insurance costs and mortgage repayments. Variable costs include agency commission, utility bills, welcome packs, and cleaning. Work these out before you do your pricing to ensure you'll not be out of pocket.

     

    Contact us if you'd like further help and advice on these questions.

     

    Curious About How My Favourite Holiday Cottages Works?

    We offer free expert advice and support to individual cottage owners and are also pretty good at advertising holiday cottages—currently, we have around 2,000 properties on the site. We don't charge booking fees or commission rates to owners or guests—just a single annual payment backed up by outstanding customer service. 

    Rates start at £125 for a single 12-month cottage advert, with generous discounts for multiple cottage listings or for including a link back to us on your own website.

    Click here to view further information on the benefits of advertising with us - and what makes us uniquely successful.