House Sitting Overseas

[alexfao]

My parents have just taken early retirement and thinking ahead to the winter. They would love to spend 2 - 4 months house/villa/apartment sitting abroad maybe paying a nominal amount and in return taking care of the property. Does anyone know where we could look further into this? Thanks

[Sylday]

It's a little difficult to comment without knowing where your parents live. But assuming they're in the UK, I think they would be very lucky to find such an arrangment - after all, if the property was UK-owned, then why would the owners not be wintering there themselves; and if it was foreign-owned, why would the owners want a UK couple to look after it? However, more constructively, your parents might consider home-swapping - click here for a helpful article. Above all, I would suggest you or your parents search Google exhaustively, ideally including the appropriate foreign language pages.

[alexfao]

Hi Sydday, Thank you for your comments. We are in the UK and to be honest I was of the same opinion as you. House swapping was my first thought but they are not so keen on this idea. I think they are going to have to go down the road of long stay package holiday. Thank you again.

[Sylday]

Hi, Alexfao If your parents are thinking of long-stay packages, they may also want to explore renting a small flat independently, which might offer more flexibility than a package, and possibly be cheaper. However, it might also mean staying a little further away from the beach and the other holiday-makers, though they may regard this as an advantage! Again, judicious searches on Google should throw up flat agents - or even private flat-owners - in the main resort areas of France, Spain, Greece etc. Incidentally, if you or they have never done it before, there's no need to be too worried about booking a flat online, as long as you take reasonable precautions. We've done it a number of times - usually in big cities like Nice, Florence and Prague - and never had any problem with transferring money etc. If you have any other queries you think I might be able to help with, please post again - I'll try to keep my eye on this thread.