Buying holiday static caravan or lodge

The annual cost for the site is £2400 (March to November) and the total cost including insurance and deprecation is about £4k pa. The site has no facilities but is near to a restaurant as well as the sailing club.

I think I am in a minority but buying our second hand static has worked out very well for me. My two sons are very keen sailors and are members of a sailing club at the coast (about 50 miles from where I am based). Our static is very close to the club and so gets used most weekends from May to October and every week during the university vacation.

We had a static caravan on what appeared to be a lovely site however after buying our caravan the owners of the site were only interested in selling caravans and not improving the site. We initially bought a secondhand van and then bought a new one with all mod cons dishwasher and washing machine and also paid to have a surrounding deck. After about a year we decided to look for a quieter site. We had our van moved to a family owned farm site with no clubhouse or entertainment although there was a farm shop. We loved the new site but sold up after 8 years to buy a tourer and see a bit more of the country.
My advice is be very careful of over friendly sales and don’t be pressured into buying. Take a good look round the site and speak to other people who have bought ask about pros and cons. Good luck.

Don't do it , it's a millstone round your neck! Management fees . Maintenance contracts compulsory changing of vans .pitch fees.you can rent wherever and whenever you want all over the UK in fabulous vans/lodges/ yurts! Without committing your hard earned cash to someone else's pockets!! Please do loads of research and don't be seduced by clever sales pitches designed to pull you I to a fantasy world that is very difficult to extracate yourself from without swingeing penalties!.good luck and sorry if I sound rooms d gloom but I'm a finance person and know the world of (very legitimate) companies happy to snatch your cash!

Mid-week short breaks are very popular nowadays, I've been on several - Monday to Friday, vacate by midday. Maybe you could buy the flat and let for the midweek then use yourself at weekends.

Our family always had a static caravan, but when my mum died we gave it up. She had to move from a site because one of her caravans was 10 years old and they told her she had to buy a brand new one or leave the site. She left and bought a 2nd hand one on another site who let you have them there for 15years. When they got too old she had to pay someone to take the caravan away. Most caravan sites are a joke, my friend has 3 years left on hers, that she paid £50k for 7 years ago, she will get no return from it and then will have to buy another brand new one from them.

Had looked into static caravans and lodges about 3 years age when looking to change the touring caravan. Seemed to be you could be held to ransom with management fees, replacement of caravan due to age, and changes to terms and conditions. We did explore two sites and when checking with local council's found both had applied for expansion. No thank you. Replaced our touring caravan. Had a remote mover for years and they are great. Have you considered a mobile home? Towing a distance may not be for you but a mobile home is just a big car. Only issue may be if you want to leave the site to go site seeing you have to pack up the van unless you have other form of transport. A lit if folk don't find this a problem and if you just want to get away fir shirt breaks you may not want to go traipsing around.

A friend of mine volunteered with Citizen’s Advice. She said the number one problem was to do with Universal Credit, the second most frequent problem was with static/lodge homes/caravans. Be very, very careful.

I wouldn't buy a lodge or caravan on an unregulated site for the reasons others have given. There are too many extras. We have found renting cottages to suit us quite well - it gives flexibility, no upkeep problems and we try out different places.

I know you have your heart set on owning something, be it a lodge, flat, whatever, but is it worth considering that for the money you would be paying (upfront), you could stay in the most luxurious lodges etc, for a considerable number of years, but without any of the hassle/upkeep/worry etc.
I had a flat in the French Alps and I adored it - but life is so much easier without it, and I also have the freedom to visit new places as well.

2nd homes for holidays are what's causing the housing shortage and why lots of places don't have small places for the local young people to buy.

We had a static caravan in a lovely family run park in Norfolk. We have it up when covid arrived as the owner was not v sympathetic to the fees being reduced while the site was shut due to the covid lockdown . O ther sites such as haven were offering discounted fees but ours just said whether the site is open or not your ground rent is still payable I pointed out that this wasn't either of us at fault we are having to stay away due to a pandemic . Not through choice he wouldn't budge and tho we couldn't access our caravan he still wanted the £4000 a year . We couldn't risk that and covid may well have carried on for years. We didn't pay a lot for our used caravan that was prob ten years ago .we had the use out of it I guess. And enjoyed it our plans were once I retired to be free from working we would be there as much as possible. But the dream ended. Sadly I miss it every day. But there was no choice. The downside of it is the fees went up at least £150 every new season .you pay to have the draindowns every winter .you pay to have fire safety checks. Insurance electric gas bills every spring . Pat testing appliances even tho was only us using it. No renting out. We also had a metre management charge added on tho we had never paid it before and no idea why. It just seemed never ending at times. I would think long and hard about the amount of use you would get from owning one esp if only limited use. We went to ours as much as possible as I only worked two days we could go Thurs to Sunday most weeks if wanted. And in the holidays. The grandkids loved it and were heartbroken as now they can't getaway at a drop of a hat to stay in nan and paps caravan peak season. No charge. Now the school holidays are out of the price range for all of us. It's a big decision. We gave up a new motorhome we had bought to have the static I still miss it. Caravan may be the better option.

We owned a static caravan on a Parkdean site at Challaborough. We enjoyed using it for 7 seasons and then sold it. Site fees go up every year and unless you have the funds available plus utility fees then it can become very expensive.
However the reason we sold up was because basically we felt tied to going to one place to make use of it.
Where we thought family & friends would make use of it especially as it was right by the sea they didnt.
We moved to using Airbnb's and love seeing different parts of the country

We had a flat at the seaside for about 5 years and we then sold it at a profit. We were able to enjoy many breaks there at little or no cost. The flat was a Victorian conversion, one of four ‘shared- freehold’ units. The owners formed the management company so the annual fees were directly related to costs incurred.
I would always recommend ‘bricks and mortar’ as it is very unlikely to depreciate. I suppose that if you would appreciate the extras offered by mobile home sites it may be worth considering over a flat.

ALANaV
That’s what we have: a motohome towing a Smart Car.
The reason we tow is because not all towns are motohome friendly ? That way we can park up outside and drive in.

Janejudge that needs a lot of work!!

I made the mistake of buying two on a holiday park .....one for me, one to rent out ! I put money on my owners' account to pay bills, etc ............the van I bought to rent out was full all season ..........on my end of year account .NOTHING ! when I asked where the rental money had gone I was told ;in charges; etc ...and I paid site fees separately. It was so much hassle with the Park owners ( a VERY well known company known as sharkdean) that I sold both at a HUGE loss ....but although I challenged their imaginative accounting techniques I was fobbed off all the time, Big mistake ! If I were you I would look into buying a motor home ...go where you like, when you like, no council tax, no site fees ,,,IF your driveway is large enough for a car and the motor home .....some good bargains about ..........and you get MOT ...what's not to like ! Unfortunately I cannot drive in the UK (having only a French licence which , with Brexit, I cannot get the DVLA to understand ..........

Buy a touring caravan and find a nice out of the way farm, or similiar. If you can't drive then someone will do it either as a friend/family or there are caravan towing services.Depending on the negotiation you could either leave it there or put it in storage over the winter months.You have more freedom with this method and it will save you money.My cousin who ran a caravan sales/ repair business did this for many years,and when i think about a bolthole i quickly go back to his advice.

Thanks Serendipity. I think it’s the idea of being able to spend weekends somewhere near the sea which is the main appeal for me in getting a static caravan, lodge, or apartment. So I could walk along the promenade at Llandudno or Rhos-on-Sea to get the sea breeze.

Thanks Shinamae, sounds lovely, I think Unison have got a holiday complex there with chalets.

Thanks Marionk. That would make a real difference having a friendly site owner who would store the caravan on site. Must admit I’m not sure how confident I would be towing a caravan on either the A55 or up the horseshoe pass.

Thanks MerylStreep for the link to the parking gadget. That would make a towing caravan a lot easier.

Thanks Sago, the letting company does sound like a boon. I remember reading in the news they had tightened up the rules around council tax exemption so that it only applied to those who were genuinely letting out their second property.

We bought a static caravan on a site in Yorkshire, absolutely beautiful place, at first it was so exciting, beautiful walks, but after I would say 12 months, it was getting boring for the simple reason every single weekend we never went anywhere else but to the caravan.

I would say shall we go to blah blah blah this weekend and both me and Mr S came up with the same Well, we're paying for the caravan so we best go there.

It got to be same old, same old and a big cross in the box was that my mobility was getting worse so going for fabulous walks were becoming a no, no. I would lock up the house where the fire and TV had been on and drive up to the caravan to put the fire and TV on.

The site fees rose and rose, but i talked to a lot of the site who had been theres years, which was brilliant. Quite a few had places abroad they lived here so many months and then flew off to their place abroad.

A few years ago I inherited an amount of money and I was going to buy a static caravan in Westward Ho! Like you I would’ve used it as a weekend getaway but the site fees put me off back then and I can’t imagine what they would be like now so I didn’t/and would’nt bother. I now just rent a caravan for the weekend in fact this weekend coming I am taking my 10-year-old grandson and we are going to Croyde in North Devon from Friday to Monday at the cost of £169 obviously we will take our own food and drink but it’s not far away from me but far enough that I will consider I’ve had a break and he will love it, I know the weather probably isn’t brilliant but doesn’t really bother us too much . Anyway good luck with whatever you decide to do ?