Bungalow living royal life

I live in a park home for the over 50s. It's an old home that we renovated before my partner died. It's worth well in excess of 3 times of the purchase price. I pay my water & electricity through the site owners & have a calor gas rank. Other parts of the site are free to use any electricity supplier. I have a decent brick built shed, am allowed pets. I do pay ground rent but I live in a gated community, my house & car insurance are less, my other outgoings are lower, basic rate council tax.....and they mow the lawn! The staff were fantastic in the initial lockdown, looking after vulnerable residents. I'm not a particularly sociable person, but there's a bar/restaurant & a residents club if I wanted to go out. There's a swimming pool & a shop. The only downside is the fee that's paid to the site owner when you sell, but there's pressure on parliament to change the law on that.

We looked at Royal Life at St Leonards in Dorset. Beautifully fitted kitchens and bathrooms The furnishings are all included and very nice quality. you can have a shed. But they are never near good bus routes or other facilities and the ground rent and site fees need to be taken into account along with the 20% which is paid when a home is sold.

Our niece is currently hoping to move to one of these in Torquay but it isn’t on a large development with amenities. It is for over 55s and she is allowed a dog, her dog is a very big but there will be no problem taking him. There are nicely landscaped grounds for which she will pay a monthly fee but no other amenities which she doesn’t want as she will be close by her two sons. She has sent us the floor plan and it looks very spacious. Just do lots of research and see what’s available.

Take legal advice on the terms and conditions before you decide whether to proceed, it probably won't be like a freehold or long leasehold property purchase, and selling a park home on if you change your mind in the future can very problematic. Rent for the plot and service charges can amount up quickly and uncontrollably so check the service charge calculations and how costs are reviewed.

Thank you for all your replies, very helpful

Royale Life sites are owned by millionaire Robert Lee Jack Bull and family. Traveller origins. Several mentions in Parliament concerning site licences and miss selling. There has been some controversy as to whether Jane McDonald is quite right in her decision to front the enterprise.

Age Uk does a leaflet on the legal situation regarding holiday homes with 12 month licence and residential park homes.

I owned a holiday park home with a 12 month residential licence and lots of owners lived there full time using their children’s address as their main home. This all came to light when the pandemic forced holiday parks to close as they would be expected to leave.

The community feel I had hoped for did not materialise unfortunately, with lots of gossip and back biting. I was happy to sell as there were constant problems with grass cutting and dogs and visitor behaviour. On the up side it was a very plush van with central heating and en-suite.

There is quite a turnover of site owners within this industry - the site I was on changed hands 3 times within 5 years. Interestingly the new owner companies had directors from the old.

I would advise steering clear of the whole idea especially a new park home as they are well overpriced.

Everyone has different tastes and financial means. I think some posters are quite disparaging, some of us can't afford detached houses in up market residential areas.

Bluelord I think it's actually an Indian word.

I used to work in the area of retirement housing, both social housing (owned and managed by councils and housing associations), and private schemes both to rent and buy.

I came across numerous residents from retirement communities of older people living in Park developments for over 45's, over 50's etc. All spoke very highly of their earlier experiences, but as they had aged and perhaps started to experience growing mobility issues, or other disabilities things often changed. In addition on many developments, the rules and costs had escalated, and values were decimated. You can reduce these risks to some degree by ensuring the Parks' membership of ARHM, but frequently people will find themselves in a situation where the regulations require all 'bungalows' to be replaced after 5 or 10 years.

If you are looking for a form of community living, where you will be living securely, with your own front door, but amongst over 50's for example, consider moving into a retirement scheme. I would always suggest that you consider renting initially, perhaps whilst you rent your current home out, so that you can test the waters, and rentals are on offer via Girlings across the UK and others.

Finally if you Google EAC (Elderly Accommodation Counsel), they have an on line tool HOOP, which can help you decide what it is that you are looking for.

A family member moved into a park home and it was really lovely, smashing location but the owners changed and they got in new managers and things went downhill, and they became very unhappy with life there. Fortunately while they were there things changed with the law and they were able to sell without involving the owners, but until that happened they were facing great difficulties, there were few solicitors who knew about the issues and they had to go hundereds of miles away to find one. You had to pay them so much on the sale. You get your utilities through the owners, and yes there are rules, and if the owners are nice there is no problems, but they can sell to someone who isn't. They were lucky in that they had only lived there a few years so the home was still fairly new but again, you'd have to replace if it was too old. And obviously there are fewer people who can buy in the first place, with the age restrictions in place. Family member would say get a bargepole and keep further away than that
A bungalow of bricks and mortar or stone and mortar would be a better bet than what is essentially a caravan. It arrived on 2 huge lorries so theoretically a mobile home but not in practice, but still an upmarket caravan. And to be honest, it would not have been suitable for someone who had mobility issues or needed a wheelchair, it had the tight corridors you get in a caravan, and it would have been hard to put a ramp in in the space they had. Who knows what the coming years will bring

bluelord

P.S. Not Royal Life though.

I've lived in one for over 12 years now. It is wonderful.

MissAdvenure
Your word cloying has made me think twice of ever moving to 'park'life'
I am a loner
Not one if honest ever been one to socialise feeling trapped if something is expected of me.

Do you know why they call them bungalows?
The first person to build one ran out of bricks while the building was only half way up so said "Bung a low roof on it"

Are they somewhere you can live all hear round, and what about when the "property" starts ageing - do they insist that it is replaced if it is over a certain age or is that just caravan sites?

Royal Life looks OK, there is another park owner, can't remember name, who.has a terrible record of bullying and unfair practices, beware.

I would never live in a mobile home. When we had to move because of financial reasons we thought of moving to what they now call park home but our son pointed out that we could get a freehold bungalow for the same price in a cheaper area plus there would be no annual fee which the owner could rise every year . We moved to a brick built bungalow in. Cult de sac on a small estate in East Anglia. The value of the property has increased over the years which I doubt a park home would do.
The neighbours are very friendly and helpful. Plus I would not like to live where there were just older people.

Not too sure I actually like the idea of areas just for older people to live in. Feels like something somehow slightly sinister. . .

A friend of mine bought one with his partner so that they can live in the countryside.
They each have a wood cabin as large as a garage in their huge garden, and a dog as well.
They are very happy there.

Sorry, I have no experience of living permanently in a static home on a site, as you describe.
We do have a similar (lodge) on our own site by the sea, but this is a holiday home only. I love it & wouldn't mind living there permanently. Although it would be a bit snug with family there too..!!

JaneJudge

all I will say is, my friend bought a bungalow in a village which wasn't 'on a complex' but was for over 50s only. She bought it (for over 800k !!!) and then all the neighbours complained when she had to look after her grandchildren! She said she had bought it thinking because they were all over 50 they would have grandchildren or having them soon and it turned out they wanted the quiet life - can't say I blame them but maybe it is something to consider

I'm afraid that this can happen anywhere. We live on an estate built in the late 70's and there are a lot of long term residents here who really don't like children. The estate management have recently sent round a letter reminding them that everybody who lives here has equal rights - there are quite a few families with children and a lot with grandchildren like ourselves, but some long-term older residents would like to turn it into an estate for the elderly with no children or signs of life.

Couldn’t pay me to live on one of those developments either. All the same, all squashed up together, no gardens to speak of, no privacy. I can imagine the rows about noise - pets, kids, TVs/radios etc etc. As Boris said, rather be dead in a ditch!

Yes Whiff, over £800k for a nice large bungalow in a sought after area. One near me just gone on the market for just under £1m. 4 beds, large garden, beautiful individual design, not far from the coast.

JaneJudge over £800k for a bungalow I would want a moat and drawbridge for that amount of money. ??

I suppose it depends on your taste but I've just looked at the Royale Life site and now I can't get that song out of my head. You know, the one about little boxes made of ticky-tacky; little boxes all the same.
Sorry, I don't mean to be offensive but, honestly, you couldn't pay me enough to make me ever live in one of those developments.

Thanks for the link Blossoming, some of us found it interesting!