Agenda or not, from a devil's advocate position I can see the logic in a question. As it is posted in the "Property Owners Forum - Views, Questions, Answers" you would have to assume the bulk of the readers will be owners or prospective owners. The way the questions have been put this possibly is not the best section to use as at could come across as poking owners with a sharp stick.
I quite agree if you want to live in the area renting sounds a good option. No big capital outlay and , no worries about looking after your "investment" and no hassle when you want to move on. The downside is having to move on when you may not want to.
From an owners perspective (well this owner) holiday rentals will attract higher rates than long term rentals and give owners the flexibility to only book the weeks they want to book out and keep weeks free form themselves. I have never seriously considered long term letting over winter as it could well be more trouble than it's worth ... even with a very good tennent who looks after your property and who doesn't expect perfection for a winter pittance in a non perfect world. I would need to ensure the property was in tip-top condition for holiday rentals from May onwards. Doing a winter lett just adds more risk and potential grief.
"but most seem to be on packages as they often cost little different than flights, so I can't imagine the holiday rentals market nets spectacular yields" The importance of this is related to whether this is the main motivation for buying or not. The other side of this statement depends on what you are comparing it to. Savings and Investment rates are very low and a lot of people do very well on their rental occupancy as not everyone is looking for a package holiday. A family holiday in a nice villa or apartment is a different thing altogether and it isn't an expensive option.
There are probably lots of owners out there in different situations so some may be keen for longer term rentals so good luck. As Scunner has said, as this is an "Owners" section you have posted in you may need more luck than if you hadn't posted the rather naive "why not rent, then someone else gets all the grief" ..... unless there is an "agenda" ;-)
