Static Caravans - Costs

PasturesNew

LillyJ wrote: »

If you want to live on a park for the lifestyle, get a mobile home.

LOL/lifestyle.

I remember the lifestyle: Getting the sack barrow out and trundling down to the site owner to buy another bottle of gas. Mid-winter, dark, wet. Then balancing the darned thing (I am 5'1") on an old sack barrow and manoevring it along the road/paths and round the back of my mobile home to connect it.

I remember the lifestyle: feeling watched by the site owner for any slight transgressions.

I remember the lifestyle: a knock at the door if any visitors had broken a rule, including rules she'd just made up like how many visitors you can have that park on the public road (well, mud track).

I remember the lifestyle: going rent book in hand every 2nd Saturday to pay the rent in cash in the site owner's living room... it was a real "doff your cap, don't make eye contact" moment.

I remember the lifestyle: kicking the front door open in the winter as it had an aluminium frame and the ice would melt, sink to the bottom of the frame then freeze the door in place again. And the door was entirely glass so I had to kick carefully.

Oh yes ... I remember the lifestyle all right!

Austin_Allegro

I did a bit of research into this subject myself.

Sadly the powers that be and the vested interests take a dim view of anyone trying to get off the mortgage/AST rented treadmill. They tend to eventually clamp down on anyone who doesn't conform. Every time you think you've got one over them and have found a way to live cheaply without paying extortionate mortgage or rent, they close the loophole.

It's very difficult to legally set up a mobile home, and trailer parks can be very restrictive.

There are ways round this - I would recommend, if you don't mind a slightly unconventional lifestyle, reading a book called 'Off Grid' by Nick Rosen. He goes through all the different options such as living in camper vans and living on houseboats etc.

Pobby

PasturesNew wrote: »

I can't dispute your figures. You know. It's your area. You've been and looked.

But I am VERY surprised at such low prices. They were £15k in rural Cambridgeshire in the late 80s. Which is where I bought my single unit. Cheapest today: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-6998886.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy looks quite an old one. The next price up on that site is £68k http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-16486309.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

Where I've just moved from, residential units were never cheaper than £100k. Cheapest today: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-16135885.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

What you are linking to is a mobile home. This is what I am talking about, a static caravan.

http://www.staticcaravan.co.uk/to-let1.jpg

This one has a price tag of £26k. Not sure if it is new or not.

Strapped

Where's it sited?

Pobby

Drats, lost the site. I think it was on the south coast somewhere.However google static caravans for sale and you will see what I mean.

LillyJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

LOL/lifestyle.

I remember the lifestyle: Getting the sack barrow out and trundling down to the site owner to buy another bottle of gas. Mid-winter, dark, wet. Then balancing the darned thing (I am 5'1") on an old sack barrow and manoevring it along the road/paths and round the back of my mobile home to connect it.

I remember the lifestyle: feeling watched by the site owner for any slight transgressions.

I remember the lifestyle: a knock at the door if any visitors had broken a rule, including rules she'd just made up like how many visitors you can have that park on the public road (well, mud track).

I remember the lifestyle: going rent book in hand every 2nd Saturday to pay the rent in cash in the site owner's living room... it was a real "doff your cap, don't make eye contact" moment.

I remember the lifestyle: kicking the front door open in the winter as it had an aluminium frame and the ice would melt, sink to the bottom of the frame then freeze the door in place again. And the door was entirely glass so I had to kick carefully.

Oh yes ... I remember the lifestyle all right!

Sounds lovely lol! I can see why you don't still live there!

PasturesNew

Pobby wrote: »

What you are linking to is a mobile home. This is what I am talking about, a static caravan.

http://www.staticcaravan.co.uk/to-let1.jpg

This one has a price tag of £26k. Not sure if it is new or not.

mobile homes and static caravans are the same thing.

The one you linked to is a holiday caravan in North Wales.
http://www.staticcaravan.co.uk/to-let.htm

skipsmum

hi,
we did this, and friends still do. pre-sited "holiday park"caravans go for £5k to 60k round here. You have to be off site for 2 months of the year, although most people live on in blackout conditions. You dont have to pay council tax, but you do pay rates which worked out at about band A prices. My friend (on a haven park) pays £70 a week inclusive of gas, leccy, water, rates, site fees. I think his caravan cost £3500 a couple of years ago. Its a cheap option if you dont want a luxury caravan and you have somewhere to go during shutdown.
We looked into the permanent residency option, £100k for a nice home but council tax, bills, water rates etc were comparable to running a 3 bed house. And you cant get a mortgage and they devalue quickly.

PasturesNew

I just remembered more of "the lifestyle"...

I remember the lifestyle: mid-winter finding the water pipes had frozen and begging buckets of water from the nearest neighbour who still had running water so I could flush my loo. . . for up to a week at a time.

I remember the lifestyle: leaving all the doors open and having to "over air" it through, especially the clothes and food cupboards, so it didn't get damp and grow mould.

I remember the lifestyle: having to polish the whole thing every year by hand. To keep up the general posh ambience of the site.

I remember the lifestyle: having to ask for permission to do everything, from changing the little step to the door, to whether you could put fencing round the bottom, to whether you could paint that fencing.

I remember the lifestyle: being given "notice to quit" by the site owner because I had a tiny overflow leak on the loo and it was her way of saying "You seem to have a leak you might not have noticed, get it fixed"

Oh I remember ....

SouthCoast

Did somebody mention living on a boat?

This one is £95k in PO20

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-8313375.rsp?pa_n=2&tr_t=buy

And for a lifestyle change I can do an executive garage for £13k

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-17396860.rsp?pa_n=2&tr_t=buy