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thinking of buying a holiday home


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HI there - I don't see any recent posts on this so hopefully someone in the know will pop by to answer...I'm considering a holiday home, just somewhere we can drive to on the weekends and holidays to get away. I don't know the first thing about caravning, camping or park homes so I need all the advice you have to offer.

 

Our budget is not huge so I came across a place in Norfolk called Kelling Heath. For example, they have a 2010 Willerby Granada 33 x 12

£28,995

 

http://www.kellingheath.co.uk/2010-willerby-granada-33-x-12-uid258.html

 

From what I can surmise, you also pay an annual fee of around 4000 gbp (for the plot). Is that indefinite with possibly annual rises for cost of living, etc.? Is this leasehold? I notice other threads say they are similar to leasehold situations - what happens then?

 

Ok so we haven't been to look because we don't know what to look out for in the sales pitches so any inof appreciated. About us: We are in early 40's with no dependents. So we don't necessarily want to make lots of money on it if we sell it one day but we would like to have it for ahwile and don't want to lose money on it.

 

About parks - how do we find a park that is not likely to have lots of children? Looking in the Norfolk area as we are local to Cambridge and it's a so so easy drive that way. Would consider anywhere that was really good value. Would consider purchasing as a holiday rental if that works out to be better financially although the aggro of dealing with renting it out is not something I personally would look forward to. Are you able to qualify for a holiday rental if you only allow a select group of people to rent it out - say form a holiday rental club of friends and family? I know it has to be available for so many days of the year but does it have to be available to the general public??

 

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help.

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Hi. People rarely post on this forum but I will see if I can help a bit. I actually live on a park in a holiday home so I can give you information on my situation.

My park was originally for retired people but he seems to have moved the goal posts somewhat. Obviously you are not meant to live on these parks so you have no resident rights e.g. no legal address (which will not worry you) nor post and you do not pay local taxes. You will not have to pay for a TV licence if you already pay at your residential address.

In my case I bought a new Bluebird van (Bluebird now taken over by Willoughby) which I am very pleased with. I pay an annual rent which increases every year (quite considerably in recent years) and an amount for business rates. Charges were in the region of £1500 per year but have now risen to c.£2800 so not as expensive as you quote. Water is included but electric is metered and I have to buy calor gas refills (49 kg at £69 which just about lasts the week in the winter if used frugally and electric heating also used). This is my biggest outlay.

The van and decking and drive cost me about £50k altogether and it depreciates frighteningly. If you sell on site you have to pay the site owner 15%. You will almost certainly lose money on it. The site is closed for 6 weeks (now reduced to 4) in February. I am lucky as the site owner allows dogs but he is funny about all sorts of other things! The van you quote seems expensive to me and I am in an area of outstanding beauty. I negociated a lease of 20 years but in my case he would probably extend this as the van was new. My family can use it if I want but I cannot sub-let.

Most of these sites only accept over 55s but you may be lucky to find one that accepts younger people. Personally I would not rent our as people do not look after rented property like their own (I should know as I rent out my house).

Hope I have given you some ideas. To find out more I would search the internet for sites etc.

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Thank you for your reply!! So I suppose basically, there is no way to 'make money' or even 'break even' and buying a unit in a holiday park is just an expense that will pay for itself if you wind up using it. It seems the better thing to do would be to by property that has the chance of at least holding or increasing in value... if we could afford to. hmmm have to put some thought into this! thanks for the info

 

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