TobyJ

Many thanks for all the input guys... really appreciate it. That's given me a lot to think about!

Thanks for the speedy reply guys. Could you please give me a rough idea of commercial licensing, insurance and safety certificate costs? So, if my idea is simply not feasible for me, what kind of return could I look to be getting for long-term rentals within a marina? As Matchpoint said: boat values generally go down; bricks and mortar values generally go up. Therefore to make this viable I would need the yield to be substantially more than that of a house. Probably another silly question here... is it possible to obtain mooring in London marinas? Or is there are these near impossible to obtain? My thinking is: if I had it moored in a prime location then I could still take advantage of short-term holiday lets without the need for it to be taken out of the marina. Thanks Tuscan... will look into it!

Hi there, My partner and I are considering buying a narrowboat as an investment (obviously we'll use it ourselves occasionally). Ideally, we'd like it to be used for short holidays during the summer months, and then be rented out during the winter at a reduced rate. Our biggest issue is that we spend about 8 months every year abroad. So, we would need someone to manage everything for us. I intend to build a website - but that will take a while before I can start relying on that for bookings. We're completely new to this, so forgive me if this is a stupid question... are there marinas out there that manage boats entirely? Would they be able to 1. Get holiday bookings for me; 2. Handle the switchovers: meet, greet & train the new arrivals, clean the boat, inspect the boat etc. 3. Carry out any necessary repairs etc etc. Could anyone recommend any good companies / marinas? Initially, we'd be looking to moor a boat in the South / Southeast of England, but if all goes well we'd like to get more and spread these out across the UK so a national company would be preferable. And of course the most important question: what % of my earnings shoul I expect to pay for such a service? Many thanks in advance for all the help! Early days for us - we're just trying to figure out whether or not this is a viable investment... bricks & mortar can be a bit boring!! Cheers Toby