If you have only ever lived in a traditional bricks-and-mortar house, the world of park homes can sound unfamiliar and over the years a fair bit of misinformation has built up around it. Park home living is one of the fastest-growing lifestyle choices for people in their fifties, sixties and beyond, and is becoming even more popular with house mortgages rising and the cost-of-living rising, and yet most of what you hear at the school gates or down the pub is either out of date or simply wrong.
At Regent Parks, we are a family-run operating business. We have been developing both residential and holiday parks across Cheshire, Yorkshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire since 2002. We have shown thousands of people around our parks, and the same myths come up again and again. Here are ten of the most persistent ones, set straight.
Myth 1: A park home is just a caravan with a fancy name
This is the most common misconception, and it matters because it shapes everything else people assume about park homes.
A modern residential park home is built to British Standard BS3632, the construction standard published by the British Standards Institution that governs homes intended for permanent, fully residential year-round occupation. That means full wall, floor and roof insulation engineered for British winters, double glazing as standard, central heating, and the kind of thermal performance you would expect from a contemporary new-build house. Holiday caravans, by contrast, are built to the lighter EN 1647 standard, which assumes seasonal use only.
Walk into one of the park homes on our residential parks and you will find fully fitted kitchens, separate utility rooms, en-suite bathrooms, modern and traditional fireplaces, vaulted ceilings and the kind of finish that would not look out of place in a mid-market new-build estate. The “caravan” of popular imagination disappeared a long time ago.
Myth 2: Park homes are for people who cannot afford a “proper” house
Most of our residents have actively chosen the lifestyle, not settled for it.
The typical Regent Parks buyer is a homeowner in their late fifties or sixties who has paid off their mortgage, owns a four or five bedroom family home that has become too big and too much work, and wants to release equity, simplify their life and move somewhere genuinely beautiful. They are not downsizing because they have to; they are downsizing because the children have left, the garden has become a chore, and the maintenance bills on a Victorian semi never stop.
A park home on one of our residential parks typically costs from £150,000 up to £300,000 for a top-of-the-range home. For someone selling a £500,000 family home, that releases a meaningful sum to enjoy in retirement, fund the holidays they always promised themselves, or help the grandchildren onto the housing ladder.
Myth 3: You cannot live in a park home all year round
You absolutely can, provided the park is licensed for residential use.
The distinction is in the planning permission and site license granted by the local authority. A residential park, like every one of Regent Parks’ residential parks, has full planning permission for permanent residential occupation as your sole or main residence. A holiday park, by contrast, will have planning and licensing conditions restricting occupation, typically requiring the site to be vacated for a period each year, or to come and go through the whole year and must provide your sole or main residential address.
It is genuinely illegal to live full-time in a home that does not meet BS3632 on a site that is not licensed for residential use, which is one reason the two categories of park exist as distinct legal entities. When you buy a residential park home from us, you are buying a property you can call your home, register on the electoral roll, and use as your address for council tax, GP registration and everything else.
Myth 4: There is no legal protection the park owner can do whatever they like
This is the myth that worries new buyers most, and it is comprehensively untrue.
Residential Park homeowners in England are protected by the Mobile Homes Act 1983, as amended by the Mobile Homes Act 2013, which is one of the more robust pieces of housing legislation on the statute book. Every resident receives a Written Statement that gives them the right to situate their park home on their pitch and grants security of tenure for the duration of the site’s planning permission, which in practice means indefinitely on a properly licensed residential park.
The Act sets out implied terms covering pitch fee reviews (annual, normally capped to inflation), the process for selling your home, harassment protections, and the conditions under which an agreement can be terminated. Disputes can be referred to the independent First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber). Free, government-funded advice is available from LEASE Park Homes, and Citizens Advice runs a dedicated consumer helpline.
In short: you have more legal protection as a park home resident than many people realise, and considerably more than you would as a private renter.
Myth 5: Park homes are full of pensioners, and there is nothing to do
Most of our residential parks are restricted to the over 45s, that part is true, but the assumption that means a sleepy, isolated existence could not be more wrong.
Every Regent Park is chosen for its location. Our Cheshire parks sit within easy reach of Wilmslow, Alderley Edge, Prestbury, Knutsford, Lymm and Mobberley, with the cafés, restaurants, garden centres, golf clubs and country walks that come with them. Our Yorkshire parks at Acaster Malbis are minutes from York. Our Shropshire and Herefordshire parks open onto some of the most beautiful countryside in England. Our park, located in Cirencester, is in the heart of the Cotswolds, which is a designated area of outstanding beauty.
What residents tell us, repeatedly, is that the community side is the part they did not expect to value so much. People know each other’s names. Neighbours look out for each other without being intrusive. There are book clubs, walking groups and bring-a-bottle gatherings on long summer evenings. As Mrs Ward put it in her testimonial to us: supportive neighbours, who are there when you need them, without intruding on your privacy.
Myth 6: You cannot get any kind of finance to buy a park home
The myth here is half-true, which is what makes it persistent. You cannot get a traditional residential mortgage on a park home, because mortgages are secured against the land and on a residential park, the land belongs to the site operator. That bit is correct.
What is wrong is the conclusion people draw that you must therefore pay cash. Specialist Park home finance is widely available from lenders such as Finance for Park Homes Ltd, with whom we work directly. We can typically arrange finance that will suit you with fixed monthly instalments and terms of up to 30 years, often at fixed rates at low %.
We also offer an Assisted Sale Scheme for buyers who have a property to sell. You secure your park home with a small deposit and move in straight away. We then take responsibility for utility costs on your former property from the day you move out, and your solicitor’s fees are capped at £750. It is designed to take the chain risk and the stress out of the process.
Myth 7: Park homes are a money pit; they only ever lose value
This is more nuanced than the myth suggests, and worth being honest about.
The value sits primarily in the home itself rather than the land beneath it, and like any built asset, condition matters enormously. A neglected home in a tired park or a neglected area will lose value. A well-maintained home on a sought-after park, and in an upmarket area and a desirable location, holds its value remarkably well, and in the most prestigious parks, in genuinely scarce locations, prices have risen meaningfully over the past decade.
Typically, where residential park homes are available anywhere from £100,000 to £350,000, you will find that a bricks and mortar detached house with the equivalent space, your own private garden, and your own driveway situated in the same location will start from around £500,000. This is the reason that residential park homes hold their value and, on some occasions, on resale, sell for more because of inflation.
The other thing to bear in mind is that the financial logic of park home ownership is different from the financial logic of conventional homeownership. You are not buying an asset that you expect to grow your wealth. You are buying a beautiful place to live with dramatically lower running costs, no stamp duty, lower council tax, and the freedom that comes with releasing equity from a larger home. For most of our residents, that trade-off is exactly the point.
Myth 8: There are loads of hidden taxes and stamp duty
There is not. In fact, the tax position on a residential park home is one of its most attractive features.
There is no Stamp Duty Land Tax to pay when you buy a park home, because you are not buying land, you are buying a chattel and entering an occupation agreement for the pitch. For a buyer moving from a £500,000 home, that alone saves a meaningful sum compared with buying an equivalent bricks-and-mortar property.
You do pay council tax, because a residential park home is your main residence, but the great majority of park homes fall into Band A, the lowest band, which means lower bills than almost any conventional house in the same area. You will also pay an annual pitch fee to the site operator, which covers the use of the pitch, the maintenance of the common areas of the park, and the upkeep that gives Regent Parks its character. Pitch fees are reviewable annually but are normally restricted to inflation under the Mobile Homes Act.
Myth 9: Park homes are flimsy and will not last
A modern park home built to BS3632 is designed and certified to last at least 50 years with normal maintenance. New homes from reputable manufacturers come with a one-year manufacturing warranty, a two-year structural warranty, and the industry-standard 10-year Gold Shield Platinum Seal cover, which protects the structural integrity of the home in the same way an NHBC warranty protects a new-build house.
The construction has come a long way from the post-war caravan stereotype. Modern park homes use timber frame construction with high-performance insulation, conventional roof tiles in many cases, brick or stone-effect cladding, and the same kitchens, bathrooms, boilers and white goods you would find in any new house. They look and perform like houses, because that is what they are designed to do.
Myth 10: Pets are not allowed and you cannot have visitors to stay
Most parks, including Regent Parks, allow pets, subject to sensible park rules typically things like keeping dogs on leads in common areas and complying with the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. Assistance dogs are always permitted as a matter of law. Park rules will be set out clearly in your Written Statement, so you will know exactly where you stand before you commit.
The same applies to visitors. Your park home is your home, in every legal and practical sense. Children, grandchildren and friends can visit and stay over exactly as they would at any other house. The over-45 age restriction applies to who can buy and live on the park permanently, not to who can come for a weekend.
A final thought
Park home myths persist partly because the sector has changed faster than its reputation. The homes are better, the legal protections are stronger, the parks are more beautiful, and the lifestyle is more genuinely sought-after than the popular imagination has caught up with.
If any of the above has answered a question you have been quietly wondering about, the next step is simply to come and look. Visit a Regent Park, walk around, talk to the residents, see the homes for yourself. The reality is almost always a long way ahead of the reputation.
To arrange a visit, call us on 01625 524021. We have parks across Cheshire, Yorkshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, with homes from £100,000.
Or contact our sales team directly on any of the telephone numbers below
07765 531 718
07767 884 575
07796 510 670
