Owning a holiday home can increase your carbon footprint

Owning and travelling to a holiday home abroad, plus the energy used while there, can literally add tonnes to your carbon footprint according to a study released by currency specialists HiFX.

Travel alone to that ‘des res’ place in the sun typically increases the average owner’s total carbon emissions by 28 per cent a year and in some cases up to 40 per cent in the worst offending destinations.

HiFX surveyed the attitudes of owners and prospective buyers of property abroad towards ‘carbon footprints’ and calculated the carbon footprint created by journeying to popular overseas holiday home destinations. The study also shows that nearly two thirds (64%) of those surveyed said they would not take into consideration the environmental effect of travelling to and from their property when deciding where and if to buy abroad.

In addition, while three quarters (78%) of people admit to making some effort to reduce their carbon footprint generated by their home on the UK, almost half (41%) of people who own or would like to own property abroad would not consider the carbon footprint created by the energy consumption of their holiday home.

“With 27 per cent of a person’s carbon footprint typically made up from domestic energy consumption this lax attitude abroad could add tonnes to individual’s carbon footprints, let alone the travel to get there. It is nice to enjoy these places for now but ignoring the environmental effect of owning two houses could impact the enjoyment of these places in the future.” said Mark Bodega, Director at currency specialists HiFX, who help over 30,000 people a year buy property abroad.

According to HiFX’s analysis, regular short haul flights to Cyprus put the island at the top the table in terms of creating the largest carbon footprint as people visit so often. Long haul destinations rack up the emissions; so just one visit a year to a place in South Africa lands Cape Town as the second most un-environmentally friendly destination amongst the ten most popular countries to own a holiday home.

A typical homeowner visiting southern Spain three times a year bumps the Iberic peninsula up the rankings; generating a carbon footprint of two and a half tonnes. Travelling to emerging overseas property hotspots such as Cape Verde can increase the average Brit’s carbon footprint by 40% - loading over four tonnes of carbon emissions onto the average Briton’s annual output of approximately ten tonnes.

Holiday home destinations ranked in order of amount of C02 generated by a typical owner visiting their property over one year:

1. Cyprus
2. South Africa
3. Cape Verde
4. Canada
5. USA
6. Spain
7. Portugal
8. Greece
9. UAE
10. Italy
11. France
12. Bulgaria


HiFX recommends these top tips to reduce your carbon footprint at home and aboard:

Consider an efficient energy source: Energy consumption in Australia is especially large as much of its electricity comes from cheap opencast coal, which produces the most CO2 level per unit of electricity whereas a holiday home in France is likely to produce less C02 as 95% of France’s electricity is produced by nuclear (80%) and hydraulic energy (15%).

Adjust the thermostat on air-conditioning by just one-half degree Celsius to save almost a tonne (0.99tonnes) of CO2.

Remember to run house-warming appliances like your washer, dryer, dishwasher and oven after the sun goes down to avoid heating up your house.

When it's practical, use a ceiling fan instead of your air conditioning and save 0.19tonnes of CO2.

In hot countries your fridge/freezer have to work harder – ensure they are situated in cool places to avoid generating unnecessary CO2.

Take the ferry or channel tunnel instead of flying to France.