Does anyone have a holiday home on a holiday park?

[WingingWonder]

I e have come into some inheritance and it’s been given with direction to ‘spend on fun’ and not our mortgage... so we have been looking at what caravan/ holiday park lodge or home we could get... we love uk holidays and would use it a lot I think, or let friends
Fwiw would be c.35k
Nervous because this is not ‘our world’
Past ground rents any other watch outs?

What area are you looking at. Devon Cliffs in exmouth is nice and they sell used ones too. They do not increase in value and we didnt use ours as much as we planned

There's ground rent too, up to 10k a year depending on the park.
The caravans only depreciate and you'll be ledt with very little.
'If it appreciates - buy it, if it deprecates - rent it'

Thanks, Cornwall,
brick built gets an average park we’d use as a base only, but modest ground rent and probably hold value (though judging right,ove sold prices they’re double what they were 2 years ago...)
Caravan static gets a brilliant location but with steep ground rent and depreciation...

Parks can be very picky about how old caravans are allowed to be. A friend of mine bought a 2 year old van for a tidy sum, paid 8k a year for 4 years and then was told by the park to move the van elsewhere or part-ex it for a more modern model as they don't allow vans over 7 years old on the park.

Agree with the above, also some parks insist you only buy gas from them at an inflated price.

Beware of the rules around age/depreciation and siting.

Beware of the rules about where your caravan will be sited, some parks can move your caravan to another area of the park with very little notice.

We owned a caravan for 6 years or so, it was a relief to sell it but of course, others love them.

How many times have you stayed in one? Try different parks to make sure you are a good "fit".

We considered doing this with some inheritance ourselves. However it seemed to us it's not the one off price of a caravan , which to be fair can be good value for used vans , but it's the site fees . At around £5,000 per year we figured that for that amount of money we could pay for quite a few weeks holiday rental accommodation over a year without the capital expenditure and it's not like a house where you would expect the value to go up .
Also put off this year with lockdowns meaning people weren't allowed to travel to property that they own

I really wouldn't. I've heard some have a clause that you have to sell it back to them when it reaches a certain age and off & you peanuts
Read the small print

If it has to be spent on fun, why not buy a touring caravan, and if necessary upgrade your car to tow it? Then you can go where you like, take it to France, Ireland, wherever, and not have old farts on site committees telling you to wash your nets/stop your children playing.

A touring motorhome would be a much better idea!

I have a static on a holiday park. My daughter is 5 and we basically spent the entire summer there after being in lockdown and not being able to go and it was amazing! We're right on the beach and it's a quiet park (no clubhouse/entertainment but have access to other parks that do). We also got one about an hour away from where we live so that we don't have to travel for hours and can pop for a weekend without loosing time travelling. Site fees are around £4K a year but if you're able to rent it out you can make some of this from that, we rent to friends and family so we don't make a huge amount as obviously we don't charge extortionate amounts.
Will it depreciate in value? Yes, our site has an age limit of 20 years old too but will allow vans to stay longer if they're in good condition and in keeping with the park. But for us, it's the memories and the freedom of being able to go on holiday at the drop of a hat. This year especially with going abroad not being an option.
If you're going to get a static my top tips would be to look round lots of parks, decide what you want from the park, we could have chosen a haven type park with entertainment on site but decided we wanted the busyness on our own terms so bought with a company who have sites like that we can access whilst we were on the quiet site. Make sure you get central heating too, if you want to use it all year round you'll need it!

I agree with the 'if it depreciates, rent it' approach. Work out how much interest you would save by paying off a chunk of your mortgage.

That will be much better value than investing in a depreciating asset. Use the savings to have fun and reduce the term of your mortgage.

Win win.

Not me, but my aunt and uncle bought a brand new one last which we can go to whenever we want. I think its great! Its on a quiet, owners only park, with no facilities apart from a laundrette, but its only a 5 minute walk to the beach so that doesn't really matter. I would just be weary of rules! Theirs is quite strict! Apart from ground rent they have to pay for the WiFi, security and something else which I can't remember! Its quite expensive!

We invested a similar amount into The Holiday Property Bond (hpb.co.uk)

As didn't want to be limited to one place.

Many great holidays so far and nice to know DC and their DC (if they have them) will benefit too.

We have a few family members who are also bond holders so had borrowed points from them before and already knew and love some of the sites and how it worked.

If you get a really good modern tourer caravan you can “seasonal pitch” which means leave it at a caravan site of your choice for a yearly fee (much less than site fees for a static)
You can get one for under £20k.
You can move it, every year if you like to different sites.
You can hook it up & whizz off for holidays & travel anywhere you want as someone said, Ireland, France, anywhere in the U.K. then take it back to your seasonal pitch.

This offers variety, fabulous holidays, fantastic bolt hole and won’t eat up all of your inheritance with little return. Plus they sell really well if you find it’s not for you after giving it a go.

Statics are great if money is no object and you can suck up the extra costs and a big loss on the purchase price.

I would be wary of purchasing a static tbh, the ground rents are very high, I know someone who brought a new static for 32k and were offered 10k by the park when they wanted to sell it, just two years later! Would touch one with a barge pole personally.

Thanks all. Sounds like vans are a no go.
Tourers/ campers not for us for various reasons, so it’s static or lodge/ house (which cost more but clearly different benefits)
Anyone had a house or perm lodge?
Appreciate all the insight thanks!!!

We have access to a house on a holiday development through a family member and it's great!

It doesn't have full on entertainment like a caravan park would but does have sports facilities and a pub

Pros as far as I know:

• it should (hopefully) increase in value instead of decreasing like a caravan would

-there are small service fees but these are less than the ground rent paid for the neighbouring caravan park -they can rent it out to the public when not in use for more per night than the caravan park next door

• I personally just prefer a house to a caravan

Enjoy your inheritance!