Bag a slice of the Great Holiday Home Boom
THE Prime Minister has said she intends to trigger Article 50 – and thus start the countdown to Britain’s exit from the EU – on Wednesday. Forecasters predict it will cause the pound to fall again – since the referendum, the pound has already fallen ten per cent against the euro.
While it is bad news for those taking holidays abroad, it is good news for those spending breaks in the UK, particularly those who want to invest in holiday homes. Those who might have previously bought such properties on the Continent are now finding it cheaper to do so here, leading to a surge in demand that will then push up prices.
‘We are seeing spikes in sales of homes for both holidays and full-time residential use,’ says Paul Skillen, sales and marketing director of Countrywide Park Homes. He adds that while the exchange rate has made buying such properties in Britain comparatively more attractive than before, increasing prices in the Spanish property market in the past 18 months have led to people who had been looking abroad turning their eyes back towards home.
Countrywide, which has a number of sites in England, focuses on park homes that people, often retirees, can live in all year round.
Park homes are legally termed ‘mobile homes’ because of how they are constructed and the sites they are on, but Mr Skillen stresses that such are the advances in technology and the legislation concerning park homes that there is little difference between them and regular bricksand-mortar properties.
Similar to Countrywide, Dream Lodge gears its homes towards the retirement market at eight parks around England. Dream Lodge says that if you add your lodge to their rental pool, you will receive a return of between eight and 12 per cent on your investment, and also get to enjoy the home yourself eight weeks of the year if you wish.
Another company offering all-year- round residential park homes is Haulfryn. It has residential parks in Berkshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Kent and Surrey, with the latest being Willow Riverside Park, close to Windsor and the Thames.
Prices start at £210,000 for a twobedroom, two-bathroom home at Westwood & Glendene Park, on the edge of the New Forest in Hampshire. But you can also book short breaks at Haulfryn’s parks, which are likely to become more popular with the plummeting pound.
Studies say that the cost of foreign holidays will increase by as much as 20 per cent because of the pound, and a report by holiday deals site Travelzoo found that four out of five British travel companies will be announcing price hikes this year.
‘All the signs are pointing in the direction of price rises for many popular destinations,’ says Travelzoo’s UK managing director Joel Brandon-Bravo.
John Bunn, whose family has owned and run a 300-acre holiday and leisure complex on the Sussex coast since 1959, says: ‘We not only saw increased enquiry levels for holidays after the Brexit vote but also more people asking about caravan ownership options.’
Bunn Leisure home ownership prices start at £7,995. ‘A family of four could easily spend that going to Florida or on a fly-drive villa holiday in Spain,’ John says.
‘They feel that by spending the money here, they’ve got something they can visit whenever they want.’
Other inexpensive park homes can be found at Medmerry Park, on the West Sussex coast. Prices there start from £5,500.
And at the other end of the South Coast – and price range – South West Holiday Parks has 16 homes that recently came on the market.
The lodges at Portland Drive on the Coast View park in the hills above Shaldon, Devon, face the sea. Prices start at £135,000.