I always reckon there is a considerable opportunity cost in owning a holiday home. A good little test is to take a good motel room cost in the town you are looking at and divide it into the purchase price. If that isn’t scary then look at all the properties that one can buy with the money and which many tenants will be paying you to own. Next look at the occupancy to make it worthwhile. Are you going to be there every second weekend, school or public hols, xmas etc?. Keen to go somewhere else this time?

Sure there is the capital gain but there is also the maintenance and security. I liken it to a daughter who cannot drive. She needed to be coaxed into the idea of using taxis as she was way ahead of the average motorist who lost 10K or more each year and had rego and insurance obligations before even driving it.

So you too can afford to live/stay at the swankiest digs in any place on earth knowing you can walk away from it just like a cab but in your case some tenants have paid for your holiday.

Its hard I know and we all slip back a bit but the oldest rule of “If it is smart to pay off your own home then surely it is smarter for someone else to pay off more homes for you.” If you have the means to play with an $800K house you have done well. However your target of 10M in 10 years will not happen this way. I agree we only live once so do both. Wait a couple more years and see what the family holiday patterns really are. Then make the choice. And did you say you will only use it “off peak?” That should go down well with the family. Your friends like to go off peak too? All the best – hope that was gentle.