Caravan - permenant accomodation..part 2?!

Staciep88

Hi everyone!

I seem to be becoming quite the regular little poster on this forum!!

Some of you may or may not know my current situation:

My and OH are in a steady long term relationship and are currently renting from my parents as OH is in debt and therefore cannot get a mortgage or rent a nicer place than where we are currently. As we are renting my parents new home (they are trying to sell there other one atm) some time soon they are going to want to move into this house and we have to find somewhere else.

We did look into buying a place not so long ago as it was so cheap and the mortgage payments per month wouldnt have been a problem but after seriously thinking about it, and having a talk about it on here we decided against it for several reasons; one being that it was the actual size of a caravan! 12ft wide....

So that got us thinking, and I have spoke about this before on the forum...

We have found a really nice static caravan, its brand new, an ex-demo being sold at a very discounted price. Central heating, double glazing etc etc and it is absolutly lovely! Its RRP is £32000, but they are selling it for £25000 and I think thats a real bargain. We have land ready (with planning permission, and with all the pipes etc ready) but I just need that extra little boost to go for it.

We would obviously need to borrow the £25000, so either a loan, which I have got some really good quotes for or from a member of my family, they would buy and we would pay them back..... Go for it or not?

Thanks in advance

poppysarah

25k is way too much. Seriously. Who's buying caravans at the moment?

If you're determined to live in one rather than rent (Compare costs of 5 year loan of 25k and rent) then don't pay more than about 17k for an ex-demo.

Staciep88

why £17k? surely it depends on the standard of the caravan? no1 is buying it yet. Loan quote: £501.36 x 60 months = £30081.60

Renting is more, your looking at atleast £650 to suit our needs so going by that:

£650 x 60 months = £39000

I was thinking of in the way that we could be saving on the side as we would be saving in monthly payments, to put together a little nest of money and then also when we come to sell the caravan we will get money back, whereas renting you pay more and you dont get anything in return at the end of 5 years

poppysarah

In 5 years time you'll have a very old worn caravan to dispose of.

Why 17k? Because as the economy flounders no one will be buying caravans.

Compare prices of 1,2,3,4 year old ones.

Staciep88

there are caravans that are 2005 and are going for £19000. I dont see how you could class a 5 year old caravan to be very old and worn? Its brand new.

TomsMom

The only thing I would say is that a static caravan will depreciate in value and may become hard to sell when you want to do so.

If people buying off you want one as a holiday home then the site they are considering going on to will have it's own rules and regulations about what caravans go on it, is it usual for the site owner to get the buyer to purchase the caravan from them or a company they're maybe tied in with? or to insist that any caravan they want to put on is no more than a certain age?

Also, if it's a holiday home then it's usual for the site owner to insist the vans are replaced every 10-15 years so they have very little value then as no-one can put one that old on another holiday home site.

If it's on a residential park, are they this type of caravan and what regulations do they have about replacing the vans? Just thinking about resale value again here. Or is it not on a park and on some other land?

I can see your logic regarding buying a caravan rather than renting, but when you factor in the site fees, etc., will it be any cheaper?

Not a lot of help am I

Also, I think borrowing from family can be fraught with problems. I think you'd need to be on very good terms with whomever you borrow from family-wise and be aware that they could possibly ask for it back early due to unforeseen circumstances. This happened to us many many years ago. We'd spent everything we had on buying our house and wanted central heating put in. F-i-l offered to put up the money providing we took out an endowment policy for the same amount, to be paid back to him at the end of the term (possibly 10 years, not sure now). Before the term was up he asked for the money back so we had to find it yet still pay the premiums on the policy rather than lose out on the final sum by finishing it early.

Chris2685

It sounds worth while to me. Mainly due to the figures involved.
The rent over 5 years won't be any less than the cost of the caravan + 5 years site fees I imagine. Plus, at the end of it you will have something to sell on. A 5 year old, well kept caravan should sell pretty easily I imagine as long as you don't expect to get back what you paid for it.

Staciep88

Hi there,

Thanks for that, the caravan would be sited on our land, well on the In Laws land, so there would be no fee's / rent to pay for the ground. Yes I see what your saying about borrowing from a family member, by the loan quotes I have been getting its not really that bad to get a quote through a company tbh. Yes I understand that they will go down in value over the years, as everything

Im just a little confused about the situation

Chris2685

If you won't even have site fees to pay, and will be living on land of someone you trust, then it sounds like an even better idea! If my girlfriends parents had lots of land I would love to stick a caravan on their land for a few years rather than pay rent

bride_on_a_budget

hi,
i think the static caravan idea is a good one, even better when you are not paying site fees! (ours £3000)

but we bought a caravan in oct last year for £21k brand new 07 model, we enquired how much it would be worth now and we were told £13K to site or £16K privatley.

one thing i would say is that caravans are cramped and stoage is a problem, just staying in ours for 2 weeks was a struggle with clothes ect.

good luck and try out surfbayleisure.co.uk for realistic static prices

bride on a budget

Batchy

I would go for it straight away ( PS i have just registered to post this after viewing your situation)... sounds like you have it sorted.

People forget caravans come fully equiped with everything all you need to move in with is a satellite dish and your clothes maybe a TV too, but some even come with plasmers on the wall, remember they dont normally have washing facilities though, as in for your clothes.

but my Static is as big as my flat with 3 bedrooms, its great...

You will have to pay full council tax on that however, so when its unoccupied, beware, you still have to pay 50%. It will last for far longer than 5 years... Whats your situation as in how long will you be there for ???

If its less than 2 years, I wouldn't bother and get a far cheaper static, a second hand one for about 6-8k...