Owning a static caravan, is it a great big ole money pit?

[Normansglasseye]

I know that no one goes into static caravan ownership as an investment but I really want one when I retire.

We have had a touring caravan for years and although dh still loves it, I on the other hand would love a little holiday home, somewhere I can just drive off to on a Friday evening and come back on a Sunday. A little place to escape too, nothing brand new or fancy just a little holiday box.

We love going down to Hampshire and Dorset and in an ideal world I would buy a small home down there but that is out of the question as it is such an expensive area but I would love a little static down that way. The kids are older teens now and wouldn't be interested in coming with us so we are not looking for an all singing all dancing site, just somewhere small and quiet with a few caravans. I know pitch fees are pricey as we once enquired at a very large site but I am hoping the smaller ones are cheaper?

Do you or anyone you know own one? Is it worth it or a big white elephant? I don't want to go into it if we will end up hemorrhaging money into it but know if I had one I would use it for years.

My dad and a friend co-own an older model in Norfolk. The site fees are £3k a year, so they pay £1500 each.

It's a basic, quiet and safe site. The only amenities are a laundry+shower block.

The caravan is now a lot older than the official site policy, but there are quite a few empty plots and I don't think the site are in any position to enforce those contract clauses - too many people would just stop completely.

We use it for free holidays and my dad comes along to spend time with our kids.

We'd use it a lot more, but it's just too far from South London for casual weekend use.

I've been toying with the idea of a static home closet to home. Realistically, I think it would need to be less than 90 minutes drive in Friday traffic to get used regularly.

I'd never thought about renting a piece of land to put a caravan on. It's an interesting idea, but how do you even start to look for suitable land with water, sewage and electricity? I can't imagine many landowners are going to rent out their land for £100 a year!

We have one but it's on a tiny site - no clubhouse, no entertainment, no swimming pool etc. it's got a small kids playpark and that's it. It's by a river, super peaceful and a quiet escape.

We pay £1500 site fees. £100 storage fee during winter. Then the electric bill is around £300 a year.

The current owners don't mind the age of vans, they're only interested in them being well looked after. Ours is 5 years old but our neighbours is 20.

We originally looked at bigger sites with more stuff on it but they are crazy expensive

@ARichtGoodDram That seems like a good deal. Where are you in the country?

We're in the north of England, caravan is in Wales

We own a static mobile home on a site by the sea and we just LOVE it. We got in in July 2022 and it has been the best addition to our family lifestyle. We are a family of five - three children. Ours is 38 x 12 x 3 bedrooms. We use of most weekends for the six months of the year that the park is open and most of the Easter and Summer holidays (I am a teacher). For us, it is a no-brainer.
ask any questions you like and I am happy to answer.

where do you find these sites with bargain fees?

I would love something (static)!, cheap and cheerful with absolutely nothing on site!

My holidays as there's 7 of us cast for 2 weeks in the region of £4500 for only 2 weeks plus food on top so buying a caravan seems to be the way forward, I can pick up a static for £10k 2 holidays at the moment site fees are frozen for 2 years so all paid for. Plus I can have as many breaks in the 10-12 months depending on which company I go with ALSO if I can be bothered rent it out when not using to earn an extra income to pay for the gas and electric.

We have had one for 11 years, we have two bedrooms, ensuite toilet and shower room. It has gas central heating and double glazing. Our rent is about £ 3 000 a year and we have a ten month site. We are not allowed to rent out your van and no social club or pool but we are very close to the beach. We can keep our vans on site for 21 years. We have a garden at the back and are completely fenced in. Lots of rabbits and a few deer now and again. The pub is about 300 yards away. There are about 195 vans on site and everyone is very friendly. We visit every weekend unless we are on holiday and absolutely love it. We happen to be in a really lovely part of Scotland with a micro climate. The village is also friendly and we have been invited to weddings and parties etc. A few friends and relatives also have vans.

Mother-in-law had one in a no frills very pretty small site. It wasn’t too extortionate, I think payments are high at places with clubhouses etc. They were very relaxed about the age of the van. We loved it and were gutted when she sold it on.

My family had a static caravan for a years. The site fees were £8k per annum open for 10 months. We loved it but sold it last year and definitely lost money on the sale but we never bought it thinking we'd make a profit so it was great for us as we used it loads and enjoyed holidays there with all the family. Many people on the same site really love it - it costs over £1,000 a week to rent a place in the school holidays from the holiday park itself so when you look at it that way - you have it all year for holidays. Some people don't have good things to say - they are usually those who purchased on credit and then have to pay the site fees on top - this would be so expensive and a huge monthly commitment. I would recommend it but only if you can pay cash for the caravan and don't need the money for anything else. If it's your life savings, then don't do it.
I now have a touring caravan and store it on a lovely quiet site in Dorset. I book a pitch when I want to go down there and they bring it out of storage for me so I turn up and it's all ready. So much cheaper than a seasonal pitch they are often around £3-3.5k a year - our storage is £650 a year. We then pay the normal pitch fees when we stay. There are quite a few sites that do this in Dorset so might be another option for you. We plan on moving to a different storage site in a year or so for a bit of a change in location.

I think you should very definitely look closely at the HPAG site, particularly the posts which warn that when (rather than if) smaller sites are bought out by large companies the rules change, and that is when they can become money pits.

It's great to have a base somewhere else, and if you have qualms about second home ownership they are a good compromise, but rents get very expensive, and add-ons like 'electricity checks' that cost hundreds and have to go through the site office add to them. Everything is regulated and you have to get gas, wifi, decking - everything - from the site owners, so they have a monopoly and abuse it.

Some are better than others where evictions are concerned, but the bottom line is that you don't own the land your lodge or caravan is sited, so you can be asked to leave at any time (the licenses tend to be annual) and then you are stuck with a worthless 'asset' that costs you to get rid of. Second hand prices are very low by comparison to new, as new prices are so inflated, and people often lose tens of thousands, sometimes in a year or two.