Anyone own or owned a static caravan or chalet type thing?

[ArsendLupin]

I've always had a notion of having a static caravan in a holiday park by the sea, somewhere Northern so that we could get to it within a couple of hours.

DH is finally sort of on board with the concept of it, having realised that his love affair with long haul luxury holidays may not be sustainable at present.

Anyway I haven't really got a clue where to start. I've tried looking at some parks online and a few have caravans for sale but I don't know what I'm looking at, and why there's such a price difference. I also can't see much about yearly costs or how long a lease you get. All I can tell is that chalets seem much more expensive.

Any tips for a beginner or experience would be welcome!

We used to have a static on a site near Snowdonia on a 10 year lease 10 months opening with site fees of £3k a year and often sites will only allow your van to stay up to a certain age

Van depreciation is horrific and many sites have a sell back clause that gives them a percentage of sale figures

If you plan to rent it out at all you are legally required to have gas and electric checks annually and insurance in place, if indeed your site allows you to

I loved the six years we had it but it really was a money pit

Yes I have one in N Yorks
Happy to answer all your questions

Do your homework
Don’t accept all the bullshit the salesmen tell you
I’ve seen people lose their life savings
Never spend more than you can afford to walk away from
If you have to rent it out to pay rent or finance then sorry to be brutal but you’re already on dodgy ground
Avoid companies with park in their names
There’s been a lot of trouble
Having got that little lot out of the way
It’s a fabulous lifestyle and it’s kept me sane during the pandemic
Had ours 4 years and should our owner sell to a big company it could all go belly up
But we owe no it
andr that’s a good place to be

An absolute money pit. We had one for 19 years and zero regrets.

We owe no one

I’d love one too but I’m going to wait until we can get deposit/mortgage on small flat instead so we have something to show for the investment

Definitely check the maximim age of caravan the park allows.
If you're on a site where you plan to rent it out, remember others will too so expect sometimes you'll have neighbours you're not keen on!
Check the site fees, get out clauses and utility situation carefully.
They are 100% a money pit.
Feels worse if you can only go weekends & school holidays. Less so if you can spend May-Sept there.
And if you have children, think about their weekend activities limiting the time you can use it too.

You're better off buying a really good touring caravan and pitching it in a site for the year. The following year you can move it to somewhere else if you prefer. And you still have some value in the van if you want to stop doing it.

@DancesWithTortoises

An absolute money pit. We had one for 19 years and zero regrets.

This is it isn’t it- it’s a real lifestyle choice and there’s some people who think it’s well worth it.

If your DH is a lover of long haul holidays is it a sustainable choice given the financial commitment?

We’d have a similar split of opinion with me and DH- if I was unable to get away on a decent foreign holiday because our static caravan in Portrush or wherever needed maintenance, there’d be steam coming out of my ears!

In 42 years I’ve had 2 statics, three tourers, a Florida villa , a chalet in france and a cottage in N Yorks,( There was one year I had no holiday home but going to my new partners home at weekends was a lovely break) but I can say the caravans were the least stress full.

If you’re unsure about going the whole hog I would start with a second hand tourer
There are some bargains to be had . My dd sold a perfectly good 5 Berth one for £200 three years ago.

Everything working nice and dry just it was 25 years old and she’d got a pop up caravan

If you don’t want to tow it put it on a site then you only have to sling your clothes in and some food and away you go

If you and the site owner don’t hit it off you can hitch up and go at the end of the season
You aren’t stuck like you are with a static
Also I wouldn’t travel more than 2 hours

I live on the coast . We are 50 miles away so about 50 minutes
Whole new world and we are here more than at home
We are going to have about 11 days this visit

Anyway got to dash for now but if I can help I will

Only if you’ve got money to burn and will really really use it.

Site fee’s often go up each year by anything from £100-£400 a year. Our old basic no frills no pool etc site used to cost over 5 years ago just under £3,000 a year just for pitch.

Gas bottles where £60 each for a 45kg bottle
Insurance, water, electric, gas safety testing and electric safety testing will have to be carried out.

Most sites will have an age limit on their vans and if they tell you they don’t still be wary as if they sell up like ours did the rules can quickly change.

They will sell you a caravan for 60k start of the season and if you need to sell up by the end you might get 20k back. I’ve seen them buy caravans back for £500 then be up for sale for £6,000 within 48 hours knowing it only had three left on site.

Change of name fees if you sell up privately can be anything from 10% to a fixed price. A certain fields site charges a fixed 5k and higher site fees to those with private sales.

That’s if you are allowed to sell privately at all some sites don’t allow it and they are worthless pretty much without a pitch.

Some sites will only allowed a list of certain contractors on site because basically they get a cut from the price you are charged. Make sure you ask.

If you need to rent it out. Don’t do it. The petty thefts, the filth some leave behind. Don’t let the site let it for you either. They don’t actually care about your caravan.

Check season lengths and what is required. Although the site may be open say March - February that’s sometimes only for those that are double glazed central heated, underfloor insulted etc.

Also go bigger than you need. If there are 4 of you I’d still get an 8berth. Always go 12ft wide not 10ft that extra 2ft makes a huge difference. Galley kitchens are a pita when someone’s trying to cook and someone wants to get to the bathroom from the living room while your trying to cook or dish up.

Different pitches may have different fees. If your got a sea fee or a larger pitch or whatever they decide you could be charged more and again sometimes they like to move older caravans off those plots regularly so it all stays looking nice and new in the premium plots.

One thing to note is that some sites only let you keep the caravan to a maximum age of about 12-14 years at which they buy it back off you but for a very low amount eg. £3k. Therefore the depreciation is huge. There’s also the annual site fees. Plus most of the nicer caravans have decking etc outside which you have to pay for. You would need to work out the costs and see if it is worth it.

Complete waste of money, no investment return, costs money to up keep. You can only stay from March to Oct and only 30 days at a time.
Costs over £3k a year, little resale value. Strict site rules.

However......

Love it, love it love it.

In mine now WFH, just a stone's throw from the sea, in fact I will be going for a walk along the beach very shortly.

Ours is a three-bedroom beachfront lodge. It is a fantastic bolt hole that pays for itself with profit alongside, at the moment. We could not have bought a beachfront bricks and mortar for the price and we have no need to fret about maintenance or cleaning etc. Everything is done. We negotiated decking and skirting, metal storage shed, fenced garden area, upgrade to Hypnos mattresses and a washer/drier included in purchase price. They were very open to bartering.

We have a holiday cottage too, but it is not as easy just to turn up and use. It needs far more maintenance and our time there involves garden tidying, odd jobs etc.

They can be a huge money burner, so do your sums wisely and don't borrow to buy one. But, ours will have repaid the purchase cost after about five years at ten weeks a year rental. We have no desire for school holiday use and so rent at peak times. The lodge has a rental life of twenty years with some small replacements of mattresses and similar.
After that we still get to keep it on site, if we choose or we can sell and replace. The lease is for forty-five years so we'll be dead by the time its up. The actual lodge will depreciate, but we'll have had at least ten years of rental at profit after purchase price covered in first five years. It's currently renting at £1,500 for three night breaks and £3,850 for peak weeks. As yet, there is no evidence of it swallowing money.

Ours has 52 week use for owners, but park closes to renters from end of October to beginning of March. There is no limit on how long we can stay but we are required to have a permanent address where we pay council tax.

We've had no problems with renters, the onsite cleaners are very good and the site rules encourage positive behaviours with a quiet after 11pm rule and no group bookings.
I'd say choose your site carefully, do your homework and negotiate well.

Actual proper lodges are a lot different to statics though. They do tend to attract different groups and agree the pitches are sold long term. Nobody wants to be swapping lodges in and outs. Statics is just a tractor and off it goes

Wow thanks for the replies. So many experiences. It's still as clear as mud

We'd be buying in cash but as it's a first time foray into this world we'd like to keep it cheap to start. That might not work though as we'd want a bit of space/luxury. Hmm.

The large tourer parked up somewhere could be a good idea. DH is terrified of pulling a caravan behind the car (I've offered to do it!) but perhaps if it's parked somewhere for a whole season he'll put on some big boy pants and do it.

We're mid 30s in central Scotland with 2, soon to be 3, small children and just fancied somewhere we could take them to the beach easily with a pool, restaurant and playpark on site. Would be weekends and school holidays and wouldn't be rented out, would be borrowed by family/friends though.

Lemon Roses your set up with a beachfront lodge sounds like perfection. The weekly rental prices in school holidays that you've quoted is what makes me want to buy somewhere! Maybe that's a false logic though given the park fees are ££££ in themselves.

My parents have had one in mid Wales for many years and it's wonderful. It's about an hour and a half from me and feels like another world. They split their time between their house and the caravan.

Site fees are £2000 per year but there are no extra facilities on site (the way they like it)
It's that getting away that counts. Friends have a tourer in a permanent pitch and it's similar but without the home comforts of the static

We have one and they really are a money pit (we bought ours new in cash or the loan would have made us even worse off)

Ours is £3k/year but the site is open 365 days a year. It’s private and you aren’t allowed to rent them out or make any money from them.

I love it but I’m really not sure it was worth the money!

One thing I have noticed is that caravan prices are EXTORTIONATE this year. I’m talking second hand caravans that are nowhere near as nice or large as ours being sold by our site for 50% more than we paid for ours new. It’s absolutely bonkers.

So right now is a terrible time to buy unless you can find yourself a bargain, but even the second hand ones are flying out quickly on the parks around us. There’s usually a steady stream available but right now there’s next to nothing left.

You will also need insurance, pay rates, electricity tends to be expensive. Our site used to be owners only now site owner lets out new caravans, has changed dramatically. Really need to be within 2 hours drive as Friday nights roads are busy and not much fun arriving in the dark. Not sure where in ours I could put a cot for instance so layout is important. A decking area is important as well.

I have one on a private site with no pool or anything, just a set of swings and slide for the kids and a social club I never make use of, but a stones throw from the beach and lots of good local attractions.
It cost a fair bit up front because of the nature of the site, but it costs me about £1000 a year yo run, Allen. And there’s no max age of vans either, though they will get a bit grumpy if it’s too tatty.
I love it, and it’s been worth every penny.

Just re the young children thing - it'll rule your kids out of Saturday afternoon primary school birthday parties if you're away every weekend.
And football matches.
And, from experience, my ideal fantasy of spending all the summer hols in our family cottage now meets with moans about not seeing their friends!
I live in hope that there'll be an age when it'll work for all of us!

ArsendLupin. We were quite sniffy at the idea originally and took some convincing. We’d heard all the stories about huge losses and extortionate fees, but we did a bit of costing and it’s nowhere near as bad as those who rely on rumour rather than fact imagine.

Our site fees are about £6k which includes most things except gas and electricity. It includes maintenance and cleaning etc. We make about £30k in rent a year from the high season weeks we let it out. That covers all our costs plus about £20k a year to offset purchase costs. It won’t make us a short term profit, so isn’t an investment, but does cover our costs plus a little bit. We expect in around twelve/fifteen years to have sufficient from rental to replace the lodge so it’s new for the children to take over as theirs.

We have 42 weeks use, if we want. Site is small but has a pool, a tiny shop, a small bar and restaurant that does basic pub food and a small playground.

We put ours through business accounts as it reduces costs and tax from income. Perfectly legal if you’re renting it as a business.

Interesting. I’ve been thinking of buying a 3 bedder on a park near a S coast beach and with facilities, largely for a dd and family (3 small dcs) to use.
Any recommendations please?

I was going to look at a couple of parks last year, shortly before Covid hit us, but still haven’t done it.

I think there’s too much variety to recommend without knowing what you like/what’s important etc. I was really surprised at the choices and thought sites were much of a muchness. They really aren’t.

The prices vary enormously too.