Static caravan holiday retreat advice

[sunjue100]

I’ve just retired after 38 years in the NHS and have a pretty decent lump sum and have been toying with buying a static caravan around the North Yorkshire area. Anyone any advice on how to go about it without paying over the odds as we really have no idea other than contacting one of the sites advertised on tv.

TIA

[mskitty]

Take a look at Upper Carr in Pickering. My FIL owns on there and it is small and has a real community feel about it, plus site fees are low.

[min]

We own a lodge with a hot tub on a Parkdene site in the Lake District.
We are private owners, which means we don’t rent through Parkdene, but an independent company, who basically deal with renting out etc..
You have to consider -
Site fees...can vary depending on facilities...£5-7 k
Rates
Gas
Electricity
Cleaning
Laundry
Window cleaning
Pat test
Gas safety
Insurance
Hot tub maintenance
Our lodge pays for itself, we use it out of season, and our families can get a cheap holiday..
You’ll never make a million, but it earns more than it would if you just left the money in the bank!

[baggers]

We have a static caravan on a Haven site and love it. I would make sure you find out the site fees, what is included and extras, maintenance costs, season duration (on our site different areas of the park have different start and end dates) and owner facilities to see what perks you get. We are lucky and our site has a lot of owner facilities and events (eg own bar, restaurant, kids park, entertainment team, gym, golf course) but they do differ.
When we aren’t using it we rent out with Haven so they look after the cleaning and repairs. Last year we more than covered the site fees and still used it when we wanted.
We know the caravan depreciates in value but we love our holidays there and family use it too.

[sparrow]

Originally Posted by baggers

We have a static caravan on a Haven site and love it. I would make sure you find out the site fees, what is included and extras, maintenance costs, season duration (on our site different areas of the park have different start and end dates) and owner facilities to see what perks you get. We are lucky and our site has a lot of owner facilities and events (eg own bar, restaurant, kids park, entertainment team, gym, golf course) but they do differ.
When we aren’t using it we rent out with Haven so they look after the cleaning and repairs. Last year we more than covered the site fees and still used it when we wanted.
We know the caravan depreciates in value but we love our holidays there and family use it too.

See more...

Hi Baggers
I'm planning to buy a static on Devon cliffs (Haven) with an inheritance. So you would recommend it?

[holidaysaver75]

Originally Posted by min

We own a lodge with a hot tub on a Parkdene site in the Lake District.
We are private owners, which means we don’t rent through Parkdene, but an independent company, who basically deal with renting out etc..
You have to consider -
Site fees...can vary depending on facilities...£5-7 k
Rates
Gas
Electricity
Cleaning
Laundry
Window cleaning
Pat test
Gas safety
Insurance
Hot tub maintenance
Our lodge pays for itself, we use it out of season, and our families can get a cheap holiday..
You’ll never make a million, but it earns more than it would if you just left the money in the bank!

See more...

We’ve driven past the Parkdean sites over the last few days (we were staying at the Parkdean just outside Morecambe but went up to the Lake District) - incredible locations and so much to do in the area. I’d love to stay there. Is your lodge pet friendly?

[simmofamily]

Have you thought of Tattershall Lakes? I know a lot of people rave about that site.

[EllieP]

We were thinking of purchasing a static at a local Haven site in South Wales called Lydstep. It’s in a beautiful position overlooking the coastal bay of Lydstep sands, Amroth and Tenby. When we enquires the site fees range from 6500-10k a year. I was quite taken aback to be honest, as I think that’s quite steep as annual fees, plus they probably increase each year. After hiring one for a couple of weekends we have decided not to go for it. The main reason being the site fees and the necessity for us to rent out the van to cover some/most of these and I just don’t really want to have to be renting it out enough to cover these annually. So we have decided to just hire a van there regularly instead in a nice spot with good views.

[paulaandhappy]

We run a holiday park and some of the things u need to consider is if you want to rent out your caravan or not. A lot of the places you can rent out your caravan the park fees are higher and these increase with the amount of facilities and also the location. You could visit a park within say the lakes and find park fees are as much as £8000 going a little further out can reduce the fees a lot.
Also look at the rules regarding the age of the caravan some parks say you have to either upgrade your van or remove it from park at perhaps 10 or 15 years old, some parks do not do this and can look at on a year by ear basis after it reaches a certain age.
If you buy from a park with no letting out it is likely to be a lot quieter and you get to know others on the park and with less facilities parks which rent out are busier and have more facilities but a higher turnaround of people less chance to get to know your neighbours. Also when renting out the people you rent out to are less likely to look after your property. Just a few things to think about.
One other thing worth remembering you are never going to make money on a caravan it is a lifestyle you are buying into and not an investment as caravans themselves depreciate a lot quickly and some parks in high sought after areas will inflate the price of a caravan simply for location of the park as I mentioned earlier worth going slightly further away from prime location parks.

[DiszeeBelle]

We own one in northumberland on a haven site. Our site fees range from £3k to £10k, i pay around £4k but get site discount due to buying a bourne leisure caravan. In total i pay around £5k a year inc site fees, utilities, water etc, insurance. We rent out (through haven) to cover the site fees, you get giving the rental fees in october for following year so you can work out when and how much to rent out for. I roughly have 2 weekends a month (have competing kids so cant be away every weekend) and have half terms etc. We used help to buy to upgrade our caravan so owe £6k to haven which i pay out of my rental. So when this is paid off i will rent out less. Haven do all repairs with renting through them and there can be repairs because a lot of people dont care when they go on holiday believe me or can be really stupid, ie flooded my caravan with dishwasher due to squirting washing liquid up in it! Not being able to lock patio doors as no keys- you turn the lock you opened it with. My new van was damaged within less than a month! Plus my blue tooth speaker stolen. Its a big decision to buy and bigger decision to rent out but its the only way we can afford it at the mo. We do enjoy being owners and my parents have just bought a pre owned van on the same site which is where i am now whilst mine is rented out.