Buying a static caravan, good or bad idea?

[Bluebarney]

I have always wanted to have a static caravan, a bolt-hole where I can feel immediately relaxed and at home but leave the stresses of work etc. behind. I am quite outdoorsy and like a simple life. So I have been doing loads of searching on the internet in to the pros and cons, found an area within 90 mins drive I love - Arnside & south Lakes - and even narrowed it down to a few sites. Thing is I keep talking myself out of it as it is a big financial hit. I would be using some of my pension pot to buy it, about a third, and as a seasoned financial worry-wart I struggle with this. I keep telling myself it is an investment in my wellbeing and my family are really keen for me to do it, my husband is non-committal!
Has anyone done this? Is it as idyllic as I imagine? Will I spend weekends walking and chilling or will it become an expensive burden?

My parents had one when we were kids and we all loved it. One thing to bear in mind is the site you pick - check what the terms are - our site ended up not renewing some people contracts if they had an older static caravan. Unfortunately I don’t know the details, but bear that in mind - you could have limited site options in c.15 years time if you don’t upgrade

They are expensive and you’ll have site fees too. Most sites have rules about the age of the statics so there’s that to consider too. Would you be replacing it in ten years as well? More pension money down the drain.

Yes! Go for it!

@Finfintytint

They are expensive and you’ll have site fees too. Most sites have rules about the age of the statics so there’s that to consider too. Would you be replacing it in ten years as well? More pension money down the drain.

That my experience as well. There are usually buy back clauses stating you can only sell your van back to the site, and they will offer you pence to what you paid for it. £2,500 for a £12k van in my parents case and they have you over a barrel. This plus ever increasing ground rent, winter shut downs, rules on van ages mean I wouldn't buy one. Money pits.

also check whether the site insists that you buy your services from them, including bottled gas.

It’s for the people for whom money is no object.
If you don’t have any money considerations, can easily take financial loss then it’s a perfect bolt hole.

As has been said, they an end up costing you a fortune. For several of the reasons already given, I wouldn't think of it as 'buying' - more like having it on a lease for up to 10 years, but one which can't be renewed or which will have any value at the end of the decade.

Depending on the size of your family and how much space you'd need, if it's just a bolt-hole you're after, might it be worth considering getting a used touring caravan, but finding a caravan site that lets you leave it there all year, or at least for the extended season (often April to October)? Even if a site isn't open for you to stay over the Winter, they still may well let you pay a small fee to leave it there permanently.

We go to a site once or twice a year with our tourer, and they offer seasonal pitches. We asked for the prices and they were extremely reasonable, especially the price for the months outside of high season. If we lived nearer and didn't want to go anywhere else with our caravan, we'd definitely consider it.

Going on the one where we asked (in north Norfolk), you'd probably be paying £1500-£2000 for the year, all in (apart from your gas). Obviously, you have to supply your own van, but there are no restrictive rules about how old it can be before you have to replace it or being forced to sell it to the site owners for a very low price.

Also, I'm sure that there are plenty of decent, honourable people who run static caravan sites, but it's renowned for being a business that attracts a lot of greedy, controlling and unreasonable sorts. They're often very demanding and will be constantly on the lookout for new ways of making more money from you e.g. forcing everybody to put up a new/replacement fence/veranda around their vans, to their specifications, using their own specified fitter (likely kickbacks involved) and paying an extortionate amount for it. Not all of them, as I said, but it is rife.

We had a static. Loved it and would do it again in a heart beat if we could afford to. Things to think about:
Site fees can be expensive.
You may only be allowed use of the caravan at a set time (ours was for 11 months of the year.)
Second hand decent caravans are a fraction of the price of a new one.
Set fees for gas and electric regardless of how much you use.
Read the t and c carefully, may be able to buy a shed for storage etc but only from their catalogue.

Like I said, I would do it again in a heart beat. So many happy memories of that time.

I'd say the only way most normal folk can afford/justify the costs is if you live there permanently (except you legally have to vacate for a month or two every year and have somewhere else to live) or if you rent it out to holidaymakers, which obviously restricts when you can use it yourself and takes away the spontaneity of deciding to pop over there for the weekend if the weather forecast is good.

Thanks for all your replies. The leasing analogy is good. Financially we can afford it but only just and it would mean sacrificing big foreign holidays, although I'm not too bothered about that as I find the whole process of booking, packing for, planning dog sitters and travelling to the airport stressful, not to mention the horror that airport have become.
We had touring caravan holidays when the kids were little when my parents put theirs on a site for the summer. So many happy memories but I also remember getting fed up of the lack of space for stuff. Might have a look at tourers though as that was 20 years ago and they might have improved.

Seems to me like it would just be a money pit. For typical week or two-week breaks, much more cost effective to just book somewhere.

If you plan to spend several months a year in the van it might make somewhat more sense. But in my experience they tend to be affected by the weather a lot, so if there's a heatwave you'll be sweltering and if there's a cold snap you'll be freezing.

We had touring caravan holidays when the kids were little when my parents put theirs on a site for the summer. So many happy memories but I also remember getting fed up of the lack of space for stuff.

Tourers are great, so maybe I'm biased! I know what you mean about living space, but depending on what you need to store, a lot of people with seasonal pitches have plastic sheds outside - something like those Keter Ultra/Max/Mahoosive Stores (or whatever they're called). They're designed to fit two wheelie bins in them and can probably be collapsed back down if you need to move them .

We had a holiday in a static that we rented for a week, before we got our tourer, and they had one of those outside with the washing machine in it!