Help to buy ISA on Static Caravan?

Tibicar

We are just opening help to buy isa for my kids, my son wants to know if he can use it to buy a static caravan as he wants to live on a caravan site. I know it's silly and by the time he can afford moving out he'll have grown out it, but it did raise an interesting point, if by 2030 he isn't in a position to buy a house can his isa be used for the cheapest thing he can find just to get the 3000?
Eg, open now at 16. In 5 years is 21 with the full Isa, a 30,000 caravan means only a 15,000 mortgage.

missile

I believe he would be able to get a loan, but not a mortgage on a static caravan.

isasmurf

The bonus can only be claimed in respect of a building. Any structure that meets the legal definition of a caravan isn't a building.

Tibicar

Thanks, cheapy flat that can have value added then. :-)

Bazofts_Revenge

Have you looked at the annual pitch fees. I thought about getting one at my favourite resort and it would be just a little more expensive to have a Mortgage on a small property in the town.

PasturesNew

The short answer is: NO.

You get a personal loan to buy such a thing, not a mortgage. They are "mobile" and not fixed into the ground, which is why you can't mortgage them. As a personal loan, if you do become unemployed, you can't get your personal loan payments covered in the same way mortgage payments or rent are paid. Site rent would be paid, but not your home repayments.

Buying a static caravan to live in is not something I'd recommend (I have done it in the past).

There are two sorts:
- those with residential status/planning permission
- those on holiday parks, even if they're open 11-12 months of the year

You can only "live" in a residential one.

You never own the land they sit on - the site owner could sell to developers and you'd get a notice to quit - and a caravan without land is worthless. You have some protection under recent residential caravan laws of eviction, but not as much as you'd like if it happened. The site I lived on was sold/cleared and its status changed to a retirement park.

They have a limited lifespan. At some point the van might be asked to be removed from the site due to its general tattiness .... and the only option allowed would be to buy a brand new one at great expense from the site owner.

Sites have many rules that you might not spot at first. I had to only buy gas from the owner, could only have milk/papers delivered by one shop/dairy - and other annoyances.

When you sell, the new owners might have to be "interviewed/vetted/allowed" to buy it from you - and there might be restrictions on who is allowed/not (e.g. mine said no co-habiting, no children, no pets, no single men). When you sell you have to give the owner 10% of the sale price "for them doing nothing at all".

In short.... it's a bad move all round for most people.

teddysmum

Even some of the parks having a small close down season, also restrict how many consecutive weeks you can be in residence (12 weeks?).