Caravan parks proving popular

THE Tweed Heritage Caravan Park at Chinderah near Tweed Heads on the far north coast of NSW has been sold for $6.08 million by Ray White Commercial as investors continue to secure assets in the caravan park market.

The 40,100sq m site at 186202 Chinderah Bay Dr, Chinderah, was sold to a Sydneybased private fund by Sam Johnson of Ray White Commercial Coolangatta/Tweed Heads on behalf of Tweed Heritage Park Pty Ltd.

Mr Johnson has completed the sales of three caravan parks in the Tweed region in recent months for more than $12 million, including the adjoining Chinderah Lakes Caravan Park at 182-184 Chinderah Bay Dr, Chinderah, to the same purchaser for just under $4 million.

He also sold the Royal Pacific Tourist Retreat and Caravan Park in Chinderah for $2.5 million.

Chinderah is located in a popular holiday region just minutes from the beaches at Kingscliff, the Tweed City Shopping Centre and Gold Coast International Airport.

Mr Johnson said the Tweed Heritage Caravan Park, which consisted of two large four-bedroom residences, a manager’s office and a total of 147 caravan sites, was a well-established business generating gross annual income of about $1 million.

“This property represent- ed a once in a lifetime opportunity to acquire a substantial parcel of land with a fully operational and established business set-up,” he said.

“We had 76 inquiries during the marketing campaign and 15 offers to purchase were received.

“Caravan parks and manufactured housing estates are playing an increasingly important role in meeting the housing requirements of the ageing population in Australia.

Ray White Commercial head of research Vanessa Rader said the Tweed region was an active tourism precinct, with the Australian Tourism Research’s 2012/ 2013 Regional Tourism Profile indicating a continued improvement in local tourism trade as the financial year yielded over 1.1 million tourism nights.

“Across the broader Northern Rivers Tropical NSW region, caravan and camping accommodation accounted for 24.4% of all nights sold. This an improvement of on the previous year which recorded 23.9%,” she said.

“This segment of the market is expected to continue to grow due to the re-emergence of the driving holiday market which in prior years had diminished due to the glut of cheap airfares and high petrol prices.”

Further inquiries to Mr Johnson on 0401 834 428 or Ms Rader on 0432 652 115.