Anyone bought a new park home lodge?

[danyeates]

Hi,

There's a really nice holiday park right next to my work and as I was searching through Right Move for our next house some rather nice properties came up. They're building a new holiday home area in the park and the lodges look really nice, not the usual bare wood everywhere job!

Here's the lounge/diner/kitchen:







This is just one style, there are a few other options.

Our current house is nice, pretty spacious for a 2 bed house, lovely garden and well decorated, but it's on a horrible road with council houses and we don't get on with the neighbours very well. It's owned by family and we rent it from them. We're looking to move (to buy our first home) but can't really find anywhere we like.

I found this and I understand you can live in them for 11 months of the year. Wondering if it's really practical to live in one of these homes. You get free use of the swimming pools, gym etc. although I understand it will be busy in the summer. My dad lives nearby in a big house with several spare rooms so we could come to an arrangement where we live in it for 10 months and let it out for the other 2, and we stay at my fathers house.

Any experiences in doing this? How would the mortgage work? I assume we'd need to look for a specialised mortgage company for a "holiday home". The other thing is whether it would depreciate in value. I assume this is likely. I'm not sure how I would feel about this as on the upside, it would always return a good rental income from holiday lets. It's on the south coast, near Lymington and the New Forest so a lovely location and a VERY popular park.

Thanks,

Dan

[5potTurbo]

I think that looks very nice indeed - better than the Park Home (pikey caravan without wheels) that my mum lives in fulltime, not that far from you actually...

Not sure about mortgages, etc., but I would think there are a number of restrictions/clauses that have to be fulfilled before you can move in.

It's probably worth going to the park itself and asking them?

[prand]

Check the park's terms & conditions very carefully. A park near my m-i-l say you have to replace each home every 5 years or so to ensure that a level of quality & consitency in the park is retained. There goes any chance of you getting a mortgage.

[scotal]

danyeates said:

How would the mortgage work? I assume we'd need to look for a specialised mortgage company for a "holiday home".

Park homes generally need a specialised mortgage, I think alot of it is to do with their relative protability compared to a bricks and mortar house.
There are firms that will do it, I suspect you wioll pay a higher rate with a different set of T&C's compared to a "normal" house.

Rather like a marine mortgage over a resi one.

[CraigW]

you'll probably also find that the "service charges" are exorbitant

[danyeates]

Thanks for your posts. I'm going to go down there tonight so I'll try and find out what I can. They are offering some of the cheaper ones with a 30 year lease. Not sure on these ones.

[scotal]

danyeates said:

Thanks for your posts. I'm going to go down there tonight so I'll try and find out what I can. They are offering some of the cheaper ones with a 30 year lease. Not sure on these ones.

I'd be triple checking what rights you have to renew that lease.

[mattdaniels]

There is a place near me that does such homes, one of the clauses is that you can't live there all year round, you have to vacate the place for a few weeks a year.

[CraigW]

its usually jan or feb, he can stay with his father

[danyeates]

Yeah, you can only occupy it for 11 months, that I do know. Although, strangely, you can occupy it during the weekends of that last month!

[hornetrider]

That pretty picture is great and all, but really, all it is is some fancy interior design inside a glorified shed.

HTH.

[Scott330ci]

It will depreciate like a stone. Not ideal if you have a mortgage.

[pmanson]

My parents live in Mudeford and their friends own something similar in Mudeford (3 or 4 rows back from the beach front).

The mobile homes on the beach front cost can cost approx £185k and the ground rent is somewhere between £4-6k per annum (this changes dependent on your location on the site).

I think some sites will only allow you to keep the homes until they reach a certain age at which point you either purchase a replacement for that plot or have to move it off site (They do this to keep the site looking new and up to date). I think the time period on the one in Mudeford is 15 years.

[davidjpowell]

Not sure if it is relevant to the Lodge, but in the case of static caravans not only will they make you replace them every so often, but you will only be allowed to use one agent if you need to sell them on - them.

Guess who gets the best buyers!

[Motorwaymick]

You would be better off checking Rightmove for a proper residential mobile home site, there are plenty of them. The purchase price may be higher but the ground rent/maintenance is typically about £100pcm. You would also be protected by the 1986 mobile home act, which basically means they cant turf you off, unlike a holiday home site.

[Chrisgr31]

Is that Shorefields Shorefield site? We have stayed at their touring site just down the road several times. It was only on walking over to use the pool this year, that I realised quite how big the site was! It is huge, and apparently made up of several different sites which have been merged together.

I think you will find that the annual costs for just being there are huge. A friend had a home on a Shorefield site at Forest Edge near Ringwood. They decided they wanted to sell this year. Personally I thought they would never get a price they wanted, but they did sell it in a matter of weeks. Dont know how much (if anything) they lost. A difficult question to ask!

[Globulator]

Looks fun, just do not expect to be allowed to rebuild a car outside. No garage either.

Watch for 'maintenance' charges, enforced replacement after N years and how much control you have over your asset - and how much it will be worth when you come to sell it; if you sell it 6 months before it needs replacing then 'not much' I'd guess.

A good place to meet new people every week of course too

[pgtips]

I have a holiday home in a park in Devon and pay approx £2400 service charge per year. For that the park itself is (very well) maintained, exterior of lodge is maintained and decking jet-washed periodically. I think we would technically need to be away one night per month to comply with park rules (it is on Dartmoor so possibly slightly more stringent than most). For a main house, I think it would be a pretty cheap option overall.

[JQ]

The main thing you need to investigate is what happens to values over time.

Like a car, a caravan is a depreciating asset - as it gets older the value decreases.

Houses are generally the opposite and are an investment in the future.

I don't know what happens to park home values, but that would be my main area of concern. Ultimately you don't own the land on which it sits - you just retain the right to place a Park home on your plot.

[CHIEF]

afaik a park can be open 365 days a year but you are then subject to council tax, this is on top of your yearly charge etc however if a park closes for 6 weeks a year there is no charge to pay.

This was certainly the case last time i looked into it.