Want A Rec Property? Buy or Rent as Needed?

My wife and I have just returned from a short break up in the Sunny (with occasional rainy patches!) Okanagan. Still got to play a couple of rounds of golf - so stop complaining! While there we popped into a couple of open houses - display centres (yes I do this occasionally on holiday!) just to get a feeling for what a vacation condo - either apartment or townhouse/duplex would cost. Two issues everyone faces here - 1) is there a unit in one's price and expectation range that would work and then 2) most importantly - does it make sense to lay out the necessary cash (from resources or by financing - or a combination) to own this item. What are the real issues here? Unless you have lots of cash sitting in your various bank accounts, and you won't miss a mere $400/500K and the monthly commitment to Strata fees and the annual tax payment; the main consideration is, how much will we, our family and friends get to use this? I believe that this is the single most hazy factor in the decision and that most folk will admit, in hindsight, that they overestimated this. The second part of this question is "Will we want to spend almost all our future holidays here, or will we get bored and want more variety?" To mitigate against the underuse, there is the possibility of renting to friends/ acquaintances and even total strangers. Will that income be sufficient to offset your costs or, as the economists will say "opportunity costs". The third factor is clearly, How much appreciation will this asset have in the next few years, the next 8 years or the next 20 years? Are they still building lots of these type of units? Will they still be popular in the future (i.e. will there be a demand)? The alternative is to pay the $200/night or $400/night needed to rent as needed. This brings with it the flexibility of going somewhere else next time!!

BTW we did see one that took our fancy but when we weighed it up we felt that we would'nt get enough personal use (we obviously work too hard!!) and/or it would not carry itself from the rental proceeds (option to place in "rental pool"). So, we'll carry on thinking - like so many folk - "would'nt it be nice to have.......?"