Holiday Park Homes

mimiduck

Hi,

Long story short I am trying to come up with affordable ways to buy a property. I live in Surrey at the moment and I came across Edgeley Holiday Park which has quite cheap housing. My question is why is it so cheap! See link below:

http://www.justlodges.com/holiday-lodge-and-log-cabin-parks/sale_view/19054-edgeley-holiday-park/lodging_id/76985

To buy a 2 bed for less than 100k I think is quite good. I am not familiar with holiday park homes, are they similar to caravan sites? Also can I check whether anyone can purchase a property in there (for example no age restrictions as we are a young working couple) ? The only negative I can think at the moment is the location as it is quite distant.

Any help is appreciated.

AdrianC

You can't live in it. It's a holiday home, a weekend getaway.

You're buying what the Americans would call a "trailer", what used to be called a "static caravan", on a rented plot. If you want to sell it, there'll almost certainly be hefty fees.

https://haulfrynholidayhomes.co.uk/our-parks/south-east-england/edgeley/faqs

00ec25

1. there will be a restriction on how many weeks you can live there. It is expressly not suitable as a permanent home unless you have somewhere else to live whilst the park is "closed". The local council will have a planning permission restriction in place which means turning a blind eye is not an option as the park owners could be sued so they won't let you stay there anyway as they have more to lose than you

2. caravans are cheap because they are caravans. they lose value, they do not gain value

3. the park owners will have a standard for how old a caravan can be, when yours gets to that age they can force you to sell it and buy a "new" caravan

there are hundreds of posts about park homes - try using the search function

oystercatcher

I know someone who lives in a permanent park home . You have to be over 55 to live on this site , although the homes appear to be cheap to buy there is a hefty monthly ground rent to be paid . Calor gas and electricity are provided by the park owners with again a hefty surcharge .

I'm not sure what more modern park homes are like but this one is very poorly insulated , they have to run the heating continuously night and day in winter and portable air conditioning in summer . As mentioned above when selling there are huge fees to pay to the site owners too and long lists of rules. People have been asked to leave on this site for not sticking to the rules .

That being said these people are happy there and it got them a detached single level home for the price of a small ex council property in a very bad area.

If times were tough I think I would rather live there than in a big block of flats or a rougher than rough estate !

seven-day-weekend

mimiduck wrote: »

Hi,

Long story short I am trying to come up with affordable ways to buy a property. I live in Surrey at the moment and I came across Edgeley Holiday Park which has quite cheap housing. My question is why is it so cheap! See link below:

http://www.justlodges.com/holiday-lodge-and-log-cabin-parks/sale_view/19054-edgeley-holiday-park/lodging_id/76985

To buy a 2 bed for less than 100k I think is quite good. I am not familiar with holiday park homes, are they similar to caravan sites? Also can I check whether anyone can purchase a property in there (for example no age restrictions as we are a young working couple) ? The only negative I can think at the moment is the location as it is quite distant.

Any help is appreciated.

You may find that these properties come with a very short lease (i,e you may have to remove it from the site when it gets to 15 years old).
You may find that you are not allowed sell them on the open market (you have to do it via the site owner).
You may find that you are not allowed to live in them full-time.
There will be annual site fees to pay, which could be £1000s.
They will depreciate in value like a car does.

I have a lovely static caravan in Snowdonia, we are not allowed to stay overnight throughout January, and many holiday parks have a shorter season. Our site fees are 3.5k per year. (Just to give you an example).

On the website you quoted is a list of residential park home sites where you can live in them all year round. http://www.justlodges.com/residential-lodge-parks

Hope this helps.

eddddy

The ownership model for holiday lodges/cabins is generally as follows:

You buy a lodge or cabin. As it gets older, its value depreciates and eventually it is scrapped (a bit like a car).

You rent a plot that the lodge or cabin is on. A couple of years ago, a remote holiday site in the south-east quoted £500 per month.

You wouldn't be able to get a mortgage, but you might be able to get a loan (finance) to buy one - a bit like getting a loan to buy a car.

PasturesNew

Holiday homes will usually have a very limited 10-12 year license to occupy - after which time you have to remove it or buy a brand new one from the site owner.

You can't live in them. You usually can't even stay in them all year round, electricity/water will often be cut off 1-2 months of the year.

Your van might even be moved during the "downtime" if they need to do site maintenance, restructuring etc.

Holiday homes require less insulation than residential park homes, so they're colder when it gets nippy; this is because they aren't designed to be lived in, so insulation isn't so "important".

You pay site fees, typically £3-7k/year to rent the plot the caravan is sitting on.

To buy one you need a personal loan, very few companies will lend money against a holiday home - most are bought from funds obtained by remortgaging people's main home.

Ozzuk

The replies to this will vary a lot as it depends completely on the site and the terms of their license. I had holiday homes, and I lived in the properties ignoring the restriction term (which was only 2 weeks in feb) but that was for fully converted stone cottages, and I owned them and the land they sat on, on a commercial mortgage.

For the parks you are looking at their license will dictate how long you can live there, but often you'll need a permanent address somewhere else to meet their terms. Other parks are less stringent, can just be a 2 week exclusion time and often have people living there for majority of year.

Aside from the legalities, there is also the construction of the home, they are often not up to full year living - but again, some sites are.

You'll need to do a lot more research and talk to site owners, it is possible to do though.

Lioness_Twinkletoes

Come on, if you are serious do just a little more research...from the website FAQ....

Can I live in my holiday lodge?

No. If you are purchasing on a licensed holiday park or a log cabin development with planning for holiday use only, you must have your primary residence elsewhere. The majority of parks will require proof of that residence by way of utility invoices on a regular basis.

ProDave

£100K for a 2 bed static caravan is a lot. I am currently living in (on my building plot) a 2 bedroom static 'van that I bought as a 15 year old van for £4K in really smart condition.

Even new, the 'van will cost nothing like £100K. Most of that is the sites mark up (profit) and it will only go down in value. If you sell it privately you will have to give 10% to the site owner. And when it reaches a certain age, the site can demand it's removed and replaced with a new one.(that's why second hand ones like mine can be had so cheap)

If all that has not put you off, you can't live all year in it, and they are pretty dire in terms of insulation so not nice to live in over the winter anyway.

n217970

I have a semi-retired friend who has a caravan at a seaside resort. He goes every weekend apart from Dec/Jan when the park is closed. Between paying the finance on the caravan and the site fees he pays as much per month for it as I do for a mortgage on a 4 bed detached. After 6 or 7 years when the van has started to age he trades it in for a 1 year old van and the process begins again. Mental.