Your very own slice of holiday heaven
THE summer holidays are upon us and one of the nation’s favourite destinations is South West England, accompanied by the traditional buildup of heavy traffic on the M4 and M5 as people make their way there.
Millions find the journey worth it, as they come back year after year, with many ending up buying holiday homes there – and others making that holiday feeling permanent by buying a home that they can retire to.
As a result, there is a great deal of pressure on the housing supply in parts of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset. It causes such problems for locals to get on the housing ladder that last year in St Ives in Cornwall, the public voted in a referendum to ban second-homeowners from buying properties in new housing projects.
A way to afford a holiday or retirement home in South West England might be to consider a park home. Because park homes are prefabricated and have different construction standards to traditional bricksand-mortar houses – and are also built on dedicated parks rather than on roads, lanes and streets – they tend to be cheaper.
Eleven lodges have just come on the market for holiday-home ownership at Parkdean Resorts’ White Acres Holiday Park near Newquay in Cornwall. Prices start at £139,995 and the lodges are opposite one of the park’s 13 fishing lakes. All the lodges are doubleglazed, have central heating, come fully furnished and have integrated kitchen appliances. Holidaymakers or owners have access to all the park’s facilities, which include an indoor heated swimming pool, sauna and gym. Parkdean Resorts is Britain’s largest holiday-park operator, with 73 locations, 68 of which offer ownership opportunities. They have other lodges currently available in Cornwall at St Minver Holiday Park, Wadebridge, as well as Newquay Holiday Park, near White Acres.
St Minver is within the grounds of an old manor house and has a heated indoor pool. Highlights of Newquay Holiday Park include three outdoor swimming pools and crazy golf.
Park-home firm Hoburne has holiday parks in Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and Dorset. A two-bedroom home at its Blue Anchor Somerset site can cost as little as £23,568, and £23,995 at its Devon Bay site. Prices at Doublebois in Cornwall – a park that has its own golf course – start at £49,995, and prices are from £31,995 at Hoburne Park in Dorset.
On Saturday and Sunday next weekend between 11am and 4pm, Hoburne is showing off its latest holiday-home developments at its Naish and Bashley sites near New Milton in Hampshire and at its Cotswold location near Cirencester.
Haulfryn Homes offers park homes in South West England that you can live in permanently at its Dewlands Park site in Dorset. Homes are available there from £175,000. Dewlands Park is near the village of Verwood and the local doctor’s surgery, shops and supermarket are only half a mile away.
Another company with a presence in the South West is the Dream Lodge group, with sites at Hilton Woods, in Cornwall near the Devon border, and at Blossom Hill in East Devon.
If you are looking for the watery setting and beautiful scenery that is so common in the South West but would rather stay in the heart of the country, Stratford Parks, on the banks of the River Avon, near Shakespeare’s home town, might fit the bill. Lodges there start at £33,200.