Dream Lodge Group

racey

A neighbour of mine, a lady in her mid seventies, is selling her 4 bedroom house to move to a new park home. Her current house is big for one person and, understandably, she wants to downsize. I've looked at the park home site - the home looks luxurious and is in a nice location.
Her priority is somewhere to live rather than an investment.
However, after reading this thread and other articles on park homes I feel that a park home is not a good idea. She hasn't asked for my opinion and has several children and grandchildren who could advise her. I did suggest a flat but she wouldn't consider one.
Anyway, it's none of my business.
I just hope that she doesn't regret the decision.

Zanderman

racey wrote: »

A neighbour of mine, a lady in her mid seventies, is selling her 4 bedroom house to move to a new park home. Her current house is big for one person and, understandably, she wants to downsize. I've looked at the park home site - the home looks luxurious and is in a nice location.
Her priority is somewhere to live rather than an investment.
However, after reading this thread and other articles on park homes I feel that a park home is not a good idea. She hasn't asked for my opinion and has several children and grandchildren who could advise her. I did suggest a flat but she wouldn't consider one.
Anyway, it's none of my business.
I just hope that she doesn't regret the decision.

Park homes are a slightly different concept to the discussion on this thread (which is largely about holiday 'lodges') but the basic principles are the same.

• The units are prefabs, not houses, and they will depreciate, and should never be seen as investments.
• Unit owners are responsible for maintenance of their unit (they own the structure, but not the land it's on)
• There will be ongoing and obligatory annual fees of several thousand pounds for the use of the plot and facilities.
• Those annual fees might increase beyond inflation each year
• The site owner may be helpful and customer-focused - but might not be.
• The site owner, however good they are, may sell the business (for that is what it is) to someone less sympathetic at any time
• The 'licence' you have for keeping your unit on the plot may have onerous conditions - and may allow the site owner to evict you at short notice and/or for trivial reasons
• If difficulties arise and you want, or need, to move out you may find selling is difficult, even at a considerable loss (and whilst you still own the unit you are liable for the fees whether you are there or not)

This isn't the place to discuss this though - there is plenty of advice on park home pros and cons out there on the web..

This thread is really about investment value - and, I hope, gives out the message that these are sorts of things are not good investments!

dlk

racey wrote: »

A neighbour of mine, a lady in her mid seventies, is selling her 4 bedroom house to move to a new park home. Her current house is big for one person and, understandably, she wants to downsize. I've looked at the park home site - the home looks luxurious and is in a nice location.
Her priority is somewhere to live rather than an investment.
However, after reading this thread and other articles on park homes I feel that a park home is not a good idea. She hasn't asked for my opinion and has several children and grandchildren who could advise her. I did suggest a flat but she wouldn't consider one.
Anyway, it's none of my business.
I just hope that she doesn't regret the decision.

As purely somewhere to live for a retiree I think they would be really nice, and other residents I spoke to when there seemed very happy they had done it. If she's at all concerned about the inheritance she leaves behind then I'd stay very clear though as the value of her purchase is likely to be halved or worse.

Zanderman

dlk wrote: »

As purely somewhere to live for a retiree I think they would be really nice, and other residents I spoke to when there seemed very happy they had done it. If she's at all concerned about the inheritance she leaves behind then I'd stay very clear though as the value of her purchase is likely to be halved or worse.

I'm going to stop rising to the bait after this but one last comment...

I would be as wary of one of these for a retiree as i would of it as an investment.

Whilst a retiree might, in theory, not have to worry about lost capital, they (usually) have no security of tenure in these places. The site can be redeveloped around them, the ground-rents might rocket sky-high, they might be seen as 'not the right sort of person' when the owners decide they want to revamp the site as mainly for young families so might find themselves 'strongly encouraged' to sell-up. Etc etc.

The last thing you need, as a retiree, is to find your dream home becomes your nightmare home. You want peace and security not uncertainty - and these parks do not have either.

jo30whit

Hi
Did your Mum go thru with it , we did and now we are not getting paid

eskbanker

jo30whit wrote: »

Hi
Did your Mum go thru with it , we did and now we are not getting paid

If that question was aimed at lollypark, the original poster from 2014, it's somewhat unlikely to be answered, as (based on their profile) they haven't been on here for several years now.

Worth spending time reading through the whole thread though, even though it's unlikely to actually help get your money back if you're beyond the point of no return with this crowd. The poll results speak for themselves....

dunstonh

No

Worth spending time reading through the whole thread though, even though it's unlikely to actually help get your money back if you're beyond the point of no return with this crowd. The poll results speak for themselves....

And at least one of those two voted as a good idea was a Dream Group rep. They had a spam post on this thread which was removed but is still quoted on the thread.

I see the protest group had someone say this in 2015:

I owned a "Dream Lodge" and can speak from first hand experience about how the Dream Lodge Group operate and how well a lodge will keep its value.

I won the Dream Lodge at Norfolk Park in a competition in the Daily Mail. You can see the details of it if you Google "Dream Lodge - Daily Mail Competition".

The Dream Lodge Group claimed that it was worth £200k and they market this model of lodge to consumers at that price.

Having (in an amazing stroke of luck) won the lodge, I decided to sell it. I was saving to buy a family home and I needed some cash more than a holiday home in Norfolk.

The Dream Lodge Group made a lot of exaggerated claims about how quickly they would be able to find a buyer for the lodge. They also tell buyers how well a lodge will hold its value.

The fact of the matter is that my lodge was on the market for a year without selling – despite the return being offered to me from day one being £100k – i.e. just 50% of the price of the lodge.

In the end, after all efforts to sell the lodge at this massive discount had failed, it was further discounted and I received £75k for it. That is just 37.5% of its value. I consider myself to be extremely fortunate that I was able to sell it at all. After all, why would anyone want to buy a second-hand lodge when they can always buy a brand new one?

£200k to £75k in the space of a year is an immediate depreciation of 62.5%. Had I invested £200k of my own money in the lodge, I would not regard that as being a particularly great investment. I should add that, in this time, the lodge was not used once. £125k was wiped off the value of my prize before so much as a kettle had been turned on. I dread to think what sort or depreciation a used lodge would suffer from.

In the end, I am still lucky – I won the lodge in a competition and I was able to liberate some cash for a deposit from it. However, had I spent my own money on a lodge, thinking that the cash would always be there for me and my family, the experience would have been absolute misery.

A post was added to that 13 weeks ago saying that the same lodge is on the market from Dream asking for offers over £175k

bail-in

...after three years, it is not looking good for investors in the Dream Lodge Group. See Telegraph article:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/news/dream-lodge-investors-limbo-guaranteed-returns-dry/

dealer_wins

No

Obviously gonna go the way of the pear, the writing was on the wall (well MSE forum) since the start

bail-in

Article By Sam Meadows,
The Telegraph

24 NOVEMBER 2018

Investors with six-figure sums tied up in holiday lodges are fearful for their investments after a supposedly “guaranteed return” payment failed to materialise.

These people invested in small properties in holiday parks operated by the Dream Lodge Group. They say they were promised a set amount of personal use a year, as well as either fixed rental income or a guaranteed profit after three years.

The company, which operates nine holiday parks across the south of England, is late filing its accounts and has appointed auditors KPMG to enact an “options process” in a bid to find further investment or a buyer for the business.

But the investors say they discovered this only when their “guaranteed return” payments, previously paid monthly, failed to arrive in October.

One investor, who paid £55,000 to receive around a fifth of the rental income from one lodge, said she was told only after days of chasing the company. Another claimed to have received no communication from the company at all.

These people have been left fearing for the future of their investments and uncertain as to where they stand.

Christopher O’Neill, 67, and his wife, Anne, 64, bought into a lodge in Norfolk for £30,000 in December last year. As part of the three-year deal, the couple were told they would receive fixed annual returns of 8pc, paid monthly, as well as their original investment back after three years.

For almost a year things went to plan and the couple received their monthly rent. However, the payment for October has not yet arrived, prompting them to contact the company’s head office.

Mr O’Neill said: “When the payment was missed we spoke to the accounts department who basically said, ‘We don’t know anything.’ If we lost our £30,000 I would be fuming to say the least, but we went into it knowing it wasn’t like taking the money to the bank. The bit I don’t like is that there’s no communication, no explanation, nothing.”

Another couple, who wanted to remain anonymous, invested £145,000 in three different lodges. One of them said: “I’ve called the company to try to get a bit more information but it sounds like the staff have been kept in the dark. Dream Lodge seems to be carrying on as normal. They are still booking holidays in our lodges, which we have put money into and aren’t getting our returns on.”

Another investor had a similar experience, telling Telegraph Money that when they called the office of Dream Lodge, the staff did not appear to know anything about the company’s situation – later giving them only the bare minimum in information.

Many of the owners appear to have been left with little option but to contact each other through social media in order to get information about their investments.

Mr O’Neill said: “All ordinary companies would at least put something in writing to explain what was going on.”

People who invested in schemes with no monthly returns but a capital payment at the end of a fixed period would not have had a missed rental payment and therefore may not realise that there could be a problem, one of the investors pointed out.

Lisa Moir, the company secretary, said: “I can confirm that having completed a strategic review of the business and engaged with key stakeholders, the directors of Dream Lodge Group have instructed KPMG to commence an options process.

“The process aims to secure a viable long-term future for the business. The process may lead to new investment into the business or a sale of the business. No decisions have yet been made on the preferred route in this process.”

She added: “We have hundreds of customers of the business and as such not everybody will be aware of the process we are undergoing at present. However, a large number of customers are aware and we are providing as much information as we can in response to inquiries in the circumstances.”

Investments in niche types of property, such as student accommodation or “buy-to-let” hotel rooms, are notoriously unreliable and frequently fail, sometimes leaving investors with nothing.

Sam Whybrow, an adviser at Cervello Financial Planning, said investors should be highly wary of schemes offering guaranteed returns that are much higher than anything else on the market.

“We tend to tell our clients to steer clear of these types of investment,” he said. “If someone is offering guaranteed returns, you have to wonder how they are doing that. These things are often highly illiquid, you can’t just take it to a marketplace tomorrow and sell it.

“As long as you are prepared for those risks then fine, but it’s so specialised that you have to do much more due diligence. You can’t just read the company’s prospectus.

“If you want two weeks a year in a holiday lodge, you can just go on Airbnb.”