Britain took 106 million overnight domestic trips in 2024, spending over £76 billion in England alone. The post-pandemic staycation boom hasn’t faded, it’s hardened into a structural shift in how the UK holidays. That shift is exactly why Hatherleigh, a market town in Devon’s “Ruby Country,” is worth a closer look: completed boutique apartments from £136,000, designed and consented as short-term lets, with Dartmoor twenty minutes south and the North Devon coast within easy reach.
The Opportunity
A boutique development of completed, high-specification apartments, with genuine investor incentives:
- From £136,000 entry price
- Advertised yields of up to 10% on short-term lets (subject to occupancy, seasonality, costs, and individual circumstances)
- 999-year lease
- Parking with every plot
- Short-term-let permission written into the lease, no planning fight required to let commercially
- Build complete, no off-plan risk, mortgageable, immediate income potential
- Genuine discounts available on each plot
These apartments are built for how holiday lets actually operate today: high-spec finish, parking, and the legal right to let, all baked in from day one.
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How It Stacks Up Against Other Assets
Short-term holiday lets play by different rules than long-term buy-to-let. Higher headline yields, but higher running costs, more seasonality, and more active management.
Vs. long-term BTL: Holiday lets typically post higher gross yields but absorb more in cleaning, turnover, marketing, and platform commissions (Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com take 3-15%). Occupancy is seasonal, so net yields land lower than the headline number. Still, the right location with the right asset beats long-term BTL on net returns.
Vs. equities: A holiday let is a tangible asset with rental income and built-in inflation pass-through, since nightly rates reset constantly. Liquidity is worse, but so is volatility.
Vs. REITs and hospitality stocks: Owning the asset directly cuts out the corporate layer. You keep the income, minus your own operating costs.
Vs. EIS, SEIS, and VCTs: A completely different risk profile. Early-stage company investments carry tax relief and outsized upside but real risk of total capital loss. Holiday property is illiquid, but it’s tangible and mortgageable.
The tax context. The UK abolished the Furnished Holiday Let (FHL) regime from April 2025. Holiday lets now sit in the standard property income regime rather than being treated as a trade. That removes some old advantages, like mortgage interest deductibility and certain CGT reliefs, and puts more weight on the underlying economics: yield, occupancy, and costs. Hatherleigh stands on those fundamentals, which is the right footing for 2026.
Why Hatherleigh
Ruby Country is a stretch of rolling mid-Devon farmland that’s long been overlooked in favour of the coast. That’s changing.
Dartmoor on the doorstep. Dartmoor National Park draws around 10 million visitors a year. Hatherleigh sits about twenty minutes from its northern fringe, close enough to be a natural base, far enough to avoid the saturated short-let supply of the Dartmoor-edge villages.
North Devon coast within reach. Bude, Widemouth Bay, and Crooklets are an easy drive, so the surfing-and-coast-path crowd that used to base itself in Bude can stay in Hatherleigh for half the rate and still drive in
Lower entry, better yields. A decade of price growth has pushed coastal Devon out of reach for many investors. Inland market towns offer materially lower entry prices for a similar tenant catchment, with appreciation upside as saturated coastal markets push tourists inland.
Strong road connectivity. The A386 and A30 connect Hatherleigh to the M5 corridor, the South East, and the Midlands. Drive-time is the unsung variable in holiday-let returns: a four-hour drive gets booked far more than a six-hour one.
Cross-seasonal demand. Summer is peak season, but Devon’s countryside also pulls in winter walkers, autumn food-and-drink visitors, and spring families, supporting occupancy across more of the year than a pure beach destination can.
Curious how opportunities like this fit into a bigger picture? Explore current opportunities with Investment Oracle →
Hatherleigh, in a Few Good Stories
Ruby Country takes its name from the Red Ruby Devon, one of England’s oldest pedigree beef breeds, still grazing locally. The beef is on local menus and the brand carries real weight; it’s a genuine identity, not a marketing invention.
Tarka the Otter, Henry Williamson’s 1927 novel, was set in the rivers and valleys around Hatherleigh and the wider Torridge-and-Taw country. It won the Hawthornden Prize, and the Tarka Trail, a long-distance walking and cycling route along the old railway line, still draws readers and walkers today.
A few more facts worth dropping into your marketing:
- Hatherleigh Carnival. Every November, the town runs a tar-barrel run, flaming barrels carried at pace through the streets. It’s one of only a handful of British towns still keeping the tradition alive, alongside Ottery St Mary.
- Seven centuries of market. Hatherleigh has held a market on the same square for more than 700 years, and the modern version is busier than it’s been in decades thanks to food-and-drink tourism.
- Population around 1,500. A genuine country market town, not a suburb. That scale is exactly what makes it work for holiday lets: enough infrastructure to be liveable for a week, small enough to feel like the rural Devon visitors are chasing.
Hatherleigh is built around its market square, its cattle country, and a literary heritage that still pulls walkers and readers through. This development sits inside that story, not parked in a field as a tourist box.
The Numbers at a Glance
| ITEM | DETAIL |
| Property | Completed apartments, short-term-let consented |
| Location | Hatherleigh, Devon (Ruby Country) |
| Entry price | From £136,000 |
| Lease | 999 years |
| Parking | Once space per slot |
| Advertised yield | Up to 10% STL (subject to occupancy and costs) |
| Discounts | Genuine investor discounts available |
| Status | Build complete, no off-plan risk |
| Mortgageable | Yes |
| STL permission | Written into the lease |
Ready to Reserve?
These are build-complete apartments with letting permission already in place, in a location where short-let supply is structurally short of demand. We expect them to move quickly.
Visit our website to reserve your plot or request the full brochure →\
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