Aibu to consider buying a static caravan?

[allotmentgardener]

Children are 1 and 3, and we like to get away in the UK 2 or 3 times a year. I suggested buying a static caravan. DH scoffed and exclaimed what a ridiculous idea. Investigation reveals that letting it can offset the site costs. Mumsnet people regale me with your knowledge!

I agree, Bluntness. Ours is truly a holiday home to us. We adore the area and it's a really good site. We lived near it for some years and then when we had to move away for work, we just so missed being near there but didn't want a house 'house', IYKWIM. This is the best of both worlds, the site has a lot going on, too - a gym and classes, a pool and sauna and steamroom, great restaurant/bar/club area, outside stuff. The lodges are in a different area from the caravans that are usually rented out to holidaymakers and more spread out but the site has terrific staff and security and there's not a lot of partying and noise. Plus we have good WiFi and a satellite so the kids like it.

Would not want to rent it out, though, just no.

They’re a money pit. If you go away 2/3 times a year it’s 1000% not worth the time and money.

It depends. We have one in an idyllic setting. Just us, nobody else. The ground rent is £100 a year.

Our site storage is £380 a year & then £23 a night including electric, the site hasn't much to do except fishing but there are acres of space for the kids to play & lovely Riverside walks. It's 5 minutes in the car to the nearest town, plenty of pubs & places to eat & drink & activities to do, it's also only an hour to the coast if you want a day out. We used ours every weekend, bank holiday & about 6-8 weeks a year.

Definitely get insurance for tourer they are targets for certain thief’s and can be near impossible to get back the police don’t like to take them back.

Also check your licence for towing as well as your car spec. Also where are you going to store it? It cannot live on the road, some land has bans on storing even if you own it. Fires and vandalism still happen at storage sites. Most camping sites not havens etc will do yearly pitches. There’s one we visit and there a man who’s been there years he has a massive speed boat that’s also on his pitch when his actually down but that site is also a working warm so maned 24/7 every day of the year.

We had one on a parkdean site. It cost my mum £20,000 to buy. The site rent was £6000 a year. We rented it out to family and close friends but that did mean we were short on time for us to use it. It also meant my mum had to keep going to the caravan to clean it and prep for new people. If the resort did that they charged a lot and we would have had to rent it out in all the holidays to make enough money for the ground rent.

We had amazing holidays but the last few years it wasn't as good and it became really noisy and the owners didn't get the benefits or support they used to. Then my mum was told she had to upgrade or would loose the plot. We just couldn't afford to buy another so sold off the caravan for £2000 and it all ended.

We have great memories but wouldn't do it again.

Park resorts/dean are ones who wanted in vet new buyers. They also told us when we was thinking of moving sites exactly where they place all their £9.50 holidays so to avoid picking a pitch in certain areas because they located them in certain areas closer to bars to maximise money from them. Also because security are close for the larger louts...

I considered it, but the depreciation was absolutely beyond the pale. Some of the chain sited only let you sell through them as well, and take a whacking cut.
My eldest is 4 and most weekends (pre Covid) has an invite to a party, I can only imagine it won't be long until she doesn't want to go at all. We definitely made the right choice for us not to go ahead and buy one.
Have you considered buying a tourer and getting a seasonal pitch?

Just remember you need to pay site fees and council tax on top of your caravan payment. Electric and gas are billed separately too.

The vans lose their value so quickly.

I am also considering this!

@Bwlch

They’re a money pit. If you go away 2/3 times a year it’s 1000% not worth the time and money.

It depends. We have one in an idyllic setting. Just us, nobody else. The ground rent is £100 a year.

where do you find these little gems?!

It's really only worthwhile if you see it as a second home, if you're using it to make money it will probably not go very well.

Our site is open year-round but some sites are closed for months.

We have one and love it. The site we are on you can not let out, only owners can stay. But this means it is perfect, no rowdy holiday makers, everyone of respectful. Kids have their friends there too. It also means we don’t have to cart things backwards and forwards. It’s a total home away from home. We go most weekend, and a lot of time during the holidays. It’s also open year round and the site have a very family feel with Halloween and Christmas disco and regular performers on in the club house.

where do you find these little gems?!

By marriage.

We signed today.
There is already no availability for our ‘lodge’ this season. So rental occupancy looks good. We told them when we wanted to use it.

Average 1, 800 pounds a week rental. We offered sixteen weeks sub let.
That gives 28.5k approx. Site fees, insurance, utilities will total around £3, 500 for this season and next, as reduced due to Covid. There is depreciation but not at £25 k a year. If we use it for 10 years, it will have paid for itself and we’ll have had holidays for our children and friends and some weekends for us.
It doesn’t feel like it’s entirely lost money. It’s only the cost of a good car and we can sell on after ten years, or give to the children. We’re told the lodges have a rental lifespan of about 25 years, so will probably see us out.

I have one in a village on the outskirts of the lake district. Paid cash, so no finance to worry about, and didn't buy it as an investment, I bought it as something to enjoy. Its a private site so no renting, site fees aren't expensive, £2.4k a year. Facilities are fairly minimal (pool, bar and tea shop) but there's no rules on age of caravan (our friends have one which is 28 years old!), we can have whatever contractors we like doing work and we can sell whenever we choose, to whoever we like.

Well it’s not as if a thief is going to make a quick getaway on a brick-on-wheels that is a caravan grin @TerribleCustomerCervix Very true and I can't imagine I'd be wanting to choose to pitch up somewhere where it's likely to get vandalised. Having said that lockdown has been a real eye opener for odd things people will steal. Locally, there's been a spate of thieves stealing huge rattan sofa sets from people's back gardens for example!

Money pit? Possibly but on a forty year lease we’ll not be around to worry too much. The van itself is said to last about 25 years in rental condition.

You’ll be extremely lucky to find a site owner who will let you keep a 25yo van there, though, much less for 40 years. There’s loads more profit in it for them if they can have a hand in every stage of frequent turnover with new vans – even if you keep it looking like new, they still won’t want to know. It's the equivalent of expecting a credit card provider to be thrilled that you've used it so responsibly and made sure to pay it off in full every month!

Tourers are a good alternative but not everyone wants to tow, plus you need a big expensive car as well.

You can tow a decent-sized tourer with a normal family estate car. Some of the massive double-axles will need a powerful, thirsty 4x4, but plenty won’t.

What Bwlch has sounds amazing. The caravans themselves are fantastic – it’s the greedy site owners who make them into money pits. If you’re able to find a nice farmer or small landowner who’s happy to just get a decent rent for the use of the land, without wanting their fingers in every other money pie going as well, that could be a perfect solution. Obviously, you wouldn’t have all of the amenities you’d have on a site, but if you just want a home from home with basic facilities, it could fit the bill perfectly.

I’d second the tourer suggestion - on a seasonal pitch, if that’s what suits your needs. Site owners for tourers seem content to make a good living by charging fair prices for the use of their land and facilities, without wanting to be Del Boys, taking you for every pound they possibly can whilst handing every scrap of responsibility straight on to you.

I think the most important thing to remember is that it is NOT an investment in any way. Add up the cost of buying the van and ALL of the site fees over 10 years (including mandatory fencing/decking etc that has to be installed by the site owner’s nominated fitter (whose charges will include a mighty kick-back for the site owner), plus utilities, insurance and other bills (including repairs) and then divide them by 10 – and that’s what it will cost you per year to have it. Once the 10 years are up, expect to walk away with nothing left, no assets or money left in it, and to be right back at square one.

Also bear in mind that, if you have school-aged children, you will be limited as to when you can go for full weeks, depending on the school holidays. Plus, if you hope to get some money back by renting out, any families you rent to will only be able to go there for the same few prime weeks that you can.

@BojoKilledMyMojo

I have one in a village on the outskirts of the lake district. Paid cash, so no finance to worry about, and didn't buy it as an investment, I bought it as something to enjoy. Its a private site so no renting, site fees aren't expensive, £2.4k a year. Facilities are fairly minimal (pool, bar and tea shop) but there's no rules on age of caravan (our friends have one which is 28 years old!), we can have whatever contractors we like doing work and we can sell whenever we choose, to whoever we like.

Now that's the sort of place I'd like. A lot of the big sites really take advantage!

Well it’s not as if a thief is going to make a quick getaway on a brick-on-wheels that is a caravan

Sad to say, there probably are 'specialist' thieves who will steal to order. You can move a static caravan slowly with a Land Rover with a beefy engine to get it off the site and on to a low-loader lorry waiting at the roadside. Unlike with a car, you're unlikely to potentially come back to it at any moment and catch them in the act. If you aren't there by early evening on any particular day, chances are that they'd have the whole evening to take it without you turning up or ever knowing until they're well away.

@TerribleCustomerCervix

Aren’t they basically a money pit?

With site fees and running costs, plus don’t lots of sites dictate when you need to replace the caravan itself because they don’t like having older models on property.

My aunt and uncle had one and ended up buying an apartment in the nearest sea side town beside the beach because it was actually cheaper.

Yep! We owned a static caravan on a Haven site for 14 years.

Don’t get me wrong - we had some wonderful holidays there but OMG is it expensive! In order to make the caravan “pay for itself” (which is the dream they sell), you need to rent out pretty much all school holidays.

Oh, and have they told you that when the Sun Holidays offer is on they will use your caravan & you’ll get the princely sum of around £60 in rent (minus probably £39.95 for a gas bottle & a fag burn in your carpet!)

I don’t regret buying it, and as I say we had some great holidays, but it absolutely won’t cover its’ own costs if you also want to use it during school holidays (not on a site such as a Haven site anyway).

I think you have to be prepared for a lot of hassle if you rent out. We have one, because we live 100 miles from family and it means we can get away and visit family (and the seaside) without hassle, kids get a lot more cousin time than they otherwise would and it’s good for them all. I WFH and have spent all the summer holidays In ours with the kids and it’s been great.

But that’s why I bought it. I would not want to let it out, the site we are on no longer allow owners to let their own vans but prior to stopping it there were lots of issues with renters being noisy, causing trouble etc. I can’t imagine the stress and hassle of dealing with the aftermath of a bad rental.

Also, vans are expensive. Site fees are expensive. Vans depreciate in value fast. You won’t get anything much back for your money in 5 years. We bought an 8 year old van at a price we were happy with and the plan is we’ll keep it for 5 years and then it will probably be fit for scrap. But that’s the lifestyle we want for the short term. So we are paying for that. You won’t make money/. You might break even, but I believe that the most in demand weeks are school holidays and weekends - times you are likely to want it yourself? If so, is there much benefit? Things you need to think about.