Holiday Home Swapping at the Costa del Sol

New regulations concerning holiday home lettings in Spain have prompted many homeowners to rethink their investment strategy. Rather than registering their property for taxation purposes as a Costa del Sol holiday home business, they are looking to house swapping, a way of travelling the world without having to pay for overnight accommodation. Register your holiday home in Marbella with a number of relevant house swap websites and you'll be able to travel without ever having to pay for hotels or car rental again.

Since no money exchanges hands between the parties willing to swap their holiday or permanent homes, there are no taxes due on income derived from a Costa del Sol property. Home swap websites like IntercambioCasas.com, OwnersDirect.co.uk, Homelink.org.uk and HomeExchange.com can provide travellers with thousands of choices, from cosy country fincas to luxury apartments and villas.

How does it work?

Look at a few sites first and in detail before choosing the portals you want to register your home with. Select the sites that have been around for several years and are well established. List your property with them, providing as many details and photographs of your Costa del Sol home as the site will allow you to upload.

Owners can actively search for a destination they are interested in visiting and make contact with home owners in, say Australia, Britain or Germany for example, and discuss swapping homes for an agreed period of time. It may also be possible to swap cars, provided all relevant insurance issues can be solved beforehand.

Since an ever-increasing number of people want to holiday in Spain, there is no shortage of willing travellers looking for a holiday home exchange. The beauty is that willing parties can provide each other with the chance to have the holiday they've always dreamed of: extended holidays are possible, since travellers only pay for their weekly food shopping, entertainment and excursions, but not for accommodation. Instead of being able to afford just a week or fortnight, travellers could spend two months or more in a location.

Once registered with a site, travellers can search for their desired destination, which includes specifying preferences for beach, countryside, city centre or mountain locations, the size of the property they require, the type of property (flat/apartment/country villa/townhouse) they'd like to stay in, the number of people travelling, preferred dates and length of stay and various other criteria, such as a having a garden, proximity to golf courses and specific tourist attractions etc.

The following are just some examples of home swapping sites for travellers:

Listing with IntercambioCasa.com

The Spanish-owned website, established in 2006, has listings for more than 60,000 homes in 150 countries.

Violeta Diaz, who manages the Spanish branch of the travel website, said in a recent interview with "Sur in English": "With the arrival of our Spanish website the Costa del Sol soon became one of the areas with the highest number of host properties. At first the beach was the main attraction but now art, heritage, culture and nature have become the new focus."

IntercambioCasa has ca. 3,707 Spanish properties on its books, of which 739 are based in Andalucía and 238 in Malaga, where the range of properties comprises of flats, beach apartments and town houses. Some 80% of the properties are near the waterfront and beach, but there are also plenty of properties on their books that are close to tourist attractions like museums, religious monuments, theatres, natural parks or theme parks.

Interestingly, nearly 50% of the homes listed for the Malaga Province are second or holiday homes rather than permanent homes. Interested parties register with the site and pay an annual fee to gain access to the worldwide property listings.

Listing with Homelink.org.uk

Established in 1953, the company has listings for thousands of homes across 80 or more countries and actively encourages members to think of the bigger picture, not just swapping homes, but their cars, child seats and ski racks to avoid paying rental fees. The site also recommends swapping a community of friends and neighbours to make the stay in a foreign country less daunting and more enjoyable, especially when travelling for longer periods of time.

Listing with Home Exchange.com

Offering more than 65,000 holiday homes in 150 countries, the site has facilitated more than 1 million exchanges for travellers since 1992. Home Exchange lists more than 730 homes in Andalusia and is perhaps one of the best known websites for home swapping.

Listing with Owners Direct.co.uk

Better known for private holiday rentals than home swapping, Ownersdirect has more than 3,000 holiday homes listed for Andalusia alone and some 70,000 homes worldwide for a potential holiday swap. Established in 1997, the site offers apartments, villas and townhouses and has won many distinguished travel awards over the years. Since August 2007, the site has been part of Home Away Inc, owners of the largest holiday websites in Europe and the USA.

If you are thinking of purchasing a holiday home in Marbella or elsewhere at the Costa del Sol, looking into home swapping as an alternative to traditional holiday home lettings may be a good idea. Holiday home swapping will allow you to go abroad more often, travel to far flung places and afford longer holidays.

It also means that your Costa del Sol holiday home will not stand empty for the greater part of the year, deterring burglars and vandals.