This is a fantastic way to downsize and live cheaply in retirement. Or even if you are still working for that matter. Providing of course that you meet the criteria of the Holiday Park.

The main criteria will be age. Most residential Park Homes and Holiday Home parks will have an over 50’s or over 55’s only, rule. So you need to check this out first otherwise you are onto a non-starter!

Now Holiday Homes appear at first to be shrouded in mystery and it is hard to find out exactly how things work. It shouldn’t be, but it is. It is a lot better than it used to be a number of years ago though.

There are “Good Points” and there are “Bad Points” when it comes to mobile homes on holiday parks. I will concentrate first on the Bad Points

but don’t let this put you off until you have read the good points.

The Bad Points

Back in the day, legislation used to be weighted heavily on the side of the park owner. Recent changes in the law on holiday homes has now shifted the weighting and made things a little fairer. You often will not be told this though as a lot of park owners don’t like to shout about the fact. The reason for this is that from the outset most owners like to sell the mobile homes to you themselves and insist on this.

This prevents you going to the manufacturers yourself and striking up a good deal. That is the prerogative of the park owner. And trust me, there are some good deals to be had.

Another little trick is to insist that you have to sell it back to the park owner when you want to sell and move on. They are more than willing always to give you the “Trade Price” for the home at this time. More than willing as they will then sell it on again at the “Retail Price” or one that they think they can get away with.

So if you think that you will get anything like what you paid for it, think again. Similarly, if you think that you can pick up a “Cheap” second-hand one up, think again. They are in quite high demand and there is possibly a higher demand for good second-handhomes than new!

This means that if you sell yours to the park owner at “Trade” you are just selling the home and it will have depreciated considerably. However, when the park owner sells it on again, he is now selling a fully sited mobile home with all the benefits of his park. So he is going to sell it for the top price. And people will pay it just to get on the park.

Simple Supply & Demand. The annoying part for you of course, is that the margin here is possibly double what the park owner gave you for it.

Having said all of that, the park owner has probably paid out a few million pounds for the land in the first place and so they need to get a return on their investment. And with that amount of money outstanding, they need to get it back as soon as possible. They are in this for the long haul as it is not a quick money making opportunity for them.

You too should be in this for the long haul too as you can lose out heavily if you buy a new holiday home and then go and sell it again a couple of years later.

Another potential downside is that most parks have limit to the amount of time you can get the lease for. The average for a low-spec home is 15 years and one built to BS3632 will possibly get you a 20-25 year lease on the plot. One owner that I know will consider extending the lease for around £1000 per extra year (2019). So, dependant upon your age, you can possibly make this your final home and not have to worry about the lease running out.

Upon expiry of your lease, you may be asked to look at replacing your home with a new one. This is done to maintain a certain level or quality of homes on the park. But if you have maintained it and kept it in good condition, you should be able to get an agreement with the park owner to extend the lease year by year. Probably with paying the extra money.

The GOOD POINTS

After all of that you a perhaps thinking how can there be any good points. But there are if you think about it.

Personally, I think the Good far out-weighs the bad!

Firstly, you have removed your mortgage expense. And even if you didn’t have one at this point in your life, the rest of your expenses for living on a holiday park are really low. Here’s an example based upon a park I know of for the season 2018-19. Bear in mind that the width of your home can have a bearing on the price.

• 12 foot wide Single Width home – Annual Ground Rent £1944
• 13 foot wide Single Width home – Annual Ground Rent £2160
• 14 foot wide Single Width home – Annual Ground Rent £2361
• 20 foot wide Double Width home – Annual Ground Rent £2432
• Insurance is around £350
• Gas & Electricity Bill combined £1200-£1500 per year.
• No Water Charge
• No Council Tax
• No Waste Charges

So you can see that the yearly running costs are really small compared with a Bricks & Mortar home. And once you get established you can hopefully begin to save and “Fill up your bucket”. The target should perhaps be to save enough to buy a new home by the time your lease expires.

In addition you have the benefit of living in a small community where everyone looks after everyone else. The whole environment is chilled and relaxed. More often thn not these parks are set in rural areas too. So walks in the countryside, Sitting on your terrace in this increasingly warming UK climate, friendly like-minded neighbours, are all the order of the day when you live in a park home.

Different Standards of Mobile Holiday Home

I mentioned elsewhere on this website that Mobile homes these days are a far cry from the static caravans of yesteryear and this is true. There are different standards to look out for, with the best being manufactured to BS3632. This is the standard to try and get as the insulation is the best. Luxury Lodges and Park Homes are built to this standard and are designed for year-round living. They are comfortable to live in even during the coldest of winter months in the UK.

Luxury Lodges and Park Homes are intrinsically the same thing except for the outside cladding or finish. Lodges tend to have a natural wooden appearance (It may not actually be wood as PVCu is used a lot too) so they look similar to a log cabin. A very good materiel used is called “Canexel” which is rather like MDF but is manufactured fusing a fire retardant and water-resistant polymer bonding agent. This is used extensively in Canada and stands up well to harsh climates. Whereas Park Homes are manufactured with a Plywood cladding that is covered with a cement-like “Stucco” that is often textured. It is all about personal preference here.

The more economical homes/caravans are manufactured with a PVCu or mainly Aluminium exterior and you will see that the walls are only around 60mm thick including the insulation. Compared with the BS3632 standard which is somewhere in the region of 100mm. So look out for this.

Caravans with “extra” insulation packs are not as good as the Luxury Caravans, Lodges and Park homes with BS3632 standard. The wall thickness of these sits somewhere between the two at around 75mm thick.

Comfortable Living

Internally, they are really quite plush these days. In general they come complete with everything you need including furniture and even pictures on the wall! Some manufacturers let you choose your own interior furnishings or even let you re-design the home to suit you own lifestyle. Changes to windows, doors and electrical fittings are easily accommodated if you go to one of the major manufacturers.

Living in a mobile home these days is cheap, plush and comfortable on a low budget.

But don’t tell everyone. Whoops, it looks like I just did!