HOUSE exchanges are becoming popular in light of the credit crunch preventing people from affording a holiday.

Websites allow people in Spain to swap houses with those living in Manhattan or Cancún, meaning they only have to pay for their flight to be able to go on holiday.

María Ángeles Sas, who runs the website for the Spanish house-swap organisation Intervac, says the situation is nothing new but is growing in popularity.

She says the trend started in 1953 when a Dutch and a Swiss professor decided to swap homes to get to know each others’ countries, and later set up a catalogue with photographs.

Both parties to the home exchange make contact via websites which have annual subscriptions of between 45 and 150 euros and firm up details such as use of vehicles, pet-feeding, and who takes care of household bills.

Not only are such swaps becoming popular for the summer, but homeowners are also making plans for Easter and even Christmas.

María Ángeles Sas says there was initially some reluctance from Spaniards, since they were afraid the guests would steal from or vandalise their homes.

“Luckily, this does not happen,” she reveals, “but those problems that do arise tend to be through misunderstandings, due to the language barrier, or people hurrying the transaction through.”

Intervac deals with homeowners in Canada, Sweden, France, New Zealand, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Egypt, Senegal, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Argentina, Peru and the USA, among others.