The Kent holiday let market

Kent sits within the South East holiday let and serviced accommodation market. Kent has a population of around 1.9 million and more motorway mileage than any other English county, with the Channel ports of Dover and Folkestone anchoring its freight economy. We arrange holiday let mortgages, serviced accommodation mortgages, bridging, development finance, remortgages and portfolio facilities on short-let property across the county, covering 12 catchments, led by Broadstairs, Dartford, Margate, Whitstable and Ashford.

The market figures below are reported nationally or at regional level by the sector's research sources, attributed to each source, and used as context rather than a Kent-specific measurement. The sale-price data is genuinely local and sourced from HM Land Registry price paid records.

Holiday let catchments across Kent

Kent is reached via A2, A20, A255, A229 and M20 J9, and good access plus recognisable destinations are what drive the bookings and nightly rates a short let can achieve. Planning and short-term-let licensing questions are determined locally by Ashford Borough Council, Dartford Borough Council, Dover District Council and Folkestone and Hythe District Council, and a lender will want the position confirmed where it applies.

Occupancy, nightly rates and yields

Across the UK there are around ~300,000 listings active short-term-let listings (AirDNA, UK Short-Term Rental Outlook, 2025), with average occupancy of around 60% and indicative average daily rates of ~£170 a night (AirDNA, UK Short-Term Rental Outlook, 2025). For this region, occupancy runs at about 62% (South East & East, AirDNA, UK Short-Term Rental Outlook, 2025) and nightly rates at about 185 £/night (South East & East, AirDNA, UK Short-Term Rental Outlook, 2025).

What a holiday let earns

Sykes reports indicative gross annual earnings of around ~£24,000 a year for a let holiday property (Sykes Holiday Cottages, Staycation Index 2025, 2025 index), though the figure varies widely by region, size and occupancy. Indicative gross holiday-let yields run around around 6 to 10% (Sykes Holiday Cottages / Savills leisure research, 2025), ahead of typical long-term lettings but against higher management cost and seasonality.

Holiday let demand signals in Kent

Buying a holiday let in Kent starts with the local property market: the 6 Kent areas we track show an average median sale price of around £333,125 on HM Land Registry data, across 7,996 residential transactions in the last twelve months, which sets the entry price a holiday let mortgage is sized against. Around around 80% of UK holiday-let demand is domestic staycation trips (VisitEngland, GB Tourism Survey, 2024), which keeps well-located South East stock letting through the year.

Holiday let finance in Kent

We arrange the full range of holiday let and serviced accommodation finance across Kent: holiday let mortgages and serviced accommodation mortgages on trading short-lets, bridging for conversions and auctions, development finance for builds and major conversions, and remortgages and portfolio facilities for the long-term hold. Send us the deal and we will come back within one working day.

Holiday let market figures are published nationally or at South East level (Sykes Staycation Index owner earnings; AirDNA short-term-rental analytics; Savills leisure research) and are presented as context for Kent rather than a county-specific measurement. Housing-transaction figures are HM Land Registry price paid data for the towns we track.