We have built the houses behind many cabin rental businesses across Europe. Try it out yourself: set one down in a quiet, beautiful place, and it will earn back what it costs in 2 to 4 years. Or lease one instead of buying, and what it earns above the lease payment is yours from the first season.
Work out your payback →A house on a seven year lease costs between about €400 and €1,200 a month, depending on the model. At the rates operators charge it takes in more than that once the running costs are paid, so the difference stays with you every month, and once the lease is paid off the whole amount does. Your guests pay for the house.
The calculator below covers every model and specification. Both figures are a full year averaged by month, after running costs, on a seven year lease with about 10% paid at the start and about 10% at the end to take ownership, which is roughly €3,250 on the pod and €5,650 on the Felicia. The lease is charged in all twelve months while a summer site earns in five, so the comparison holds over a year rather than month by month.
Operators we build for charge somewhere between €150 and €300 a night. This works out what a house earns and how long it takes to earn back its price. Change any number to match your own market.
Ready to rent adds a kitchen, a bathroom with shower, toilet and water heater, electric heating, a bed, and a table with seating. Fully off-grid replaces the electric heating, cooking, hot water and toilet with a wood stove, gas appliances and a composting toilet, and adds solar with batteries and a water tank. Both are example specifications built from our price list, not fixed packages.
What this leaves out, deliberately: delivery and site preparation, which depend on the model and the distance, consumables such as linen and crockery, the land, permits, and the cost of borrowing. Model prices are base prices, so options add to them. VAT is left out because business customers inside the EU are billed at 0%. Ask us for a delivered price and we will put real numbers on the first two.
€56,500 fully off-grid, plus €2,000 to deliver it. Let at €180 a night for 180 nights, with 35% of the revenue going on running costs.
Earns itself back in 2.8 years€32,500 with a kitchen, a bathroom and furniture, plus €2,000 to deliver it. Let at €90 a night for 140 nights, a normal Nordic summer season, with 30% of the revenue going on running costs.
Earns itself back in 3.9 yearsThe more expensive house wins here, which is not what most people expect. Delivered, the Felicia costs about 70% more than the pod, and it earns two and a half times as much, because it can charge double the nightly rate and stay open through a longer season. What the house costs is not what decides this. The rate you can defend and the number of nights you fill are.
Fifty-six of the houses we have delivered are out there earning, rented to guests everywhere from a private island in Denmark to the Carnic Alps. These are a few of the businesses running them, and they are only examples. Several have come back for more.
“Vagabond Haven are the perfect partners.”Marcus Southon, co-founder, Hiide
“I bought 4 tinies from Vagabond Haven. Everything about this company, and the crew behind it, deserves much more than 5 stars.”Johnny, Vejrø, Denmark
Most businesses lease these rather than paying for them outright, and the whole thing turns on one point. The house has to stay movable property and must not become part of the land. Ours qualify, on wheels or on a steel frame, which is what makes a lease possible in the first place.
We are not a lender and we do not arrange finance. What we can do is tell you which companies write these leases in your market, and give them what they need about the house.
Around twenty finished houses are ready to leave now, and every model in the range can be specified and priced online in a few minutes.
Tell us what you are planning, or simply ask us a question. We will come back to you with real numbers for your site.
Or call +46 (0)18 25 88 99. Madelene looks after operator enquiries and will come back to you.