The 10 Most-Asked Questions About Park Homes in the UK, Answered
When someone first considers a park home, the questions tend to come in a rush. Can I really live in it all year? Do I own it? What about my dog? What happens when I want to sell? After more than two decades of showing people around our residential and holiday parks across Cheshire, Yorkshire, Shropshire and beyond, we have heard them all.
This guide collects the ten questions we are asked most often, with straightforward, accurate answers. If your question is not here, the team is on the phone seven days a week and we are always happy to talk it through.
- What actually is a residential park home, in legal terms?
A residential park home is a single-storey, easily accessible, factory-built mobile home, designed and constructed to British Standard BS3632, which sits on a designated pitch on a fully residential licensed park.
You buy the home itself outright. You enter into a written agreement under the Mobile Homes Act 1983 with the park operator, which gives you the right to situate your park home on our pitch and live there as your sole or main residence. The land beneath the home remains the property of the park operator. This split between owning the park home and paying to allow your park home to be situated on the pitch is the defining legal feature of park home ownership, and it is what makes everything else, the pricing, the running costs, the resale process, work the way it does.
- Can I live in a park home all year round?
Yes, in a residential park. All of Regent Parks’ residential parks are provided by the local authority with a site license that states the park is for residential use.
The crucial distinction is between a residential park and a holiday park. Holiday parks have a planning and site license condition that restricts all-year-round residential occupation, typically requiring residents to vacate for a defined period each year. Many holiday parks such as ours have a 12-month holiday site license which allows occupiers to enjoy the park for holiday purposes all year round; however, they must provide the park operator with their sole or main residential address. Living full-time on a holiday park breaches that planning and site license condition and is one of the few areas where buyers occasionally get caught out. Always check the site license with the local authority or, more simply, ask the park operator directly to send you a copy of the site license for that park.
- Do I own the park home, or am I renting?
You own the home. Regent Parks own the land.
When you buy a residential park home, the home itself is your property, and you can sell it, gift it to a family member, or pass it on through your estate to a family member. The pitch beneath is rented from the park operator under your written agreement, for which you pay an annual pitch fee. Security of tenure under the Mobile Homes Act runs for the duration of the site’s planning permission, which on a properly fully residential licensed residential park is effectively indefinite.
This is genuinely different from both freehold homeownership and from renting, and it is worth taking the time to understand. We always recommend buyers read the Written Statement carefully and, if they wish, take independent legal advice although it is not legally required.
- How much do park homes cost?
It depends on the park, the location, the size and the specification, but as a working guide:
Regent Parks’ residential park homes start at around £100,000 and rise to around £350,000 for larger, premium-specification homes on our most desirable parks. Holiday lodges located on our holiday parks start from around £30,000.
The headline price is only part of the picture. There is no Stamp Duty Land Tax to pay, council tax is normally Band A, no estate agency fees on purchase, and the home arrives finished; there are no separate costs for kitchen, bathroom, flooring, white goods or fitted furniture, all of which are typically included. Compared with the all-in cost of buying an equivalent bungalow on the open market, the price gap is usually substantial. This is also the main reason that park homes do hold their value, because of the prices in the local area of a traditional bricks and mortar property.
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.
- Can I get a mortgage on a park home?
Not a traditional residential mortgage, no. High-street mortgages are secured against the land registered with HM Land Registry, and on a residential park, the land is not yours to offer as security.
Specialist Park Home finance is available, and we work directly with Finance for Park Homes Ltd to arrange it. We can offer finance options to suit your needs with low interest rates and fixed monthly instalments, and terms of up to 30 years.
We also offer an Assisted Sale Scheme for buyers who own a property they need to sell. You secure your park home with a small deposit and move in straight away. We then take responsibility for the utility costs on your former property from the day you move out, manage the marketing of your existing home, and cap your solicitor’s fees at £750. For most of our buyers, this is the route that takes the chain risk and the stress out of the
- What ongoing costs should I budget for on a residential park?
There are four main categories.
The annual pitch fee is paid to the park operator and covers the right to situate your park home on the pitch, the use and maintenance of the common areas, and the upkeep of the park. It is reviewable annually under the Mobile Homes Act, and the review is normally limited to inflation and is in compliance with the Consumer Price Index “CPI”. Pitch fees vary by park and pitch, and we will always be straightforward about the figure for any specific home.
Council tax is paid to the local authority because the park home is your main residence. Most park homes fall into Band A, the lowest band.
Utilities, such as gas, electricity, water and sewerage, are paid in the normal way, but are paid on a commercial basis rather than a domestic one, which is cheaper. Modern park homes built to BS3632 are well-insulated, which makes them cheap to heat. Plus, with them being constructed of a wooden structure and built to the British standards BS3632, they stay warmer, and most of our residents see a meaningful drop in their energy bills compared with their previous house.
Insurance is essential and should be arranged through a specialist park home insurer. There are many park home insurance specialists, and we recommend shopping around. We can also recommend providers.
There is no separate estate maintenance charge, no service charge, no ground rent on top of the pitch fee. What you see is what you pay.
- What happens when I want to sell?
You can sell your park home at any time. The process is set out in the Mobile Homes Act 1983 and is one of the areas the legislation deliberately tightened in 2013 to prevent operators from interfering with sales.
In practice, you market the home and find a buyer. The seller and the buyer then follow the assignment procedure and fill out the forms and provide them to the park operator as set out in the Mobile Homes Act 1983, and the new buyer must satisfy the park rules for example, that they meet the over-45 age requirement on a residential park. The park operator cannot unreasonably block the sale. Once the sale completes, the operator is entitled to a commission of up to 10% of the sale price, which is the maximum set by statute and has been at that level since 1983.
The 10% commission is the most-debated feature of the park homes sector and has been subject to repeated government reviews. The justification, broadly, is that the value being sold is a combination of the home itself and the appeal of the pitch and park around it, and the commission funds reinvestment in the park. The Government most recently launched a fresh call for evidence on the commission in 2026, so this may evolve. But for now, 10% is the maximum and that is what buyers should plan for.
- Are Park Homes well-built? How long will one last?
Modern Park Homes are built to last. The BS3632 standard requires construction designed for at least a 50-year lifespan with normal maintenance, and our homes are supplied by manufacturers who self-certify under the National Caravan Council’s scheme.
In practice, you get a one-year manufacturer’s warranty, a two-year structural warranty, and a 10-year Gold Shield Platinum Seal cover for major structural defects, directly comparable to the NHBC warranty on a new-build house. Construction is timber-framed with high-performance wall, floor and roof insulation, double or triple glazing as standard, modern central heating, and contemporary fitted kitchens and bathrooms.
The popular image of a draughty caravan that needs replacing every few years bears no relation to a 2026-specification residential park home. Maintenance is light, just things like gutters, the occasional roof inspection, the same routine care any home needs, but compared with an older bricks-and-mortar property, the running and maintenance burden is substantially lower.
- Can I have pets, and can my family come to stay?
Yes, on both counts.
Most parks, including Regent Parks, allow domestic pets subject to sensible park rules. These typically include keeping dogs on leads in common areas and complying with the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. Some parks have rules around replacing pets after they pass away, which the Written Statement will set out. Assistance dogs are always permitted as a matter of law.
Visitors and family stays are entirely your decision. Your park home is your home, and children, grandchildren and friends can visit and stay over exactly as they would at any other house. The over-45 age restriction on residential parks applies to who can purchase and live there permanently, not to who can come and stay for the weekend, or to those who wish to stay longer.
- Why do people choose park home living over a bungalow or a flat?
This is the question that matters most, and the answers we hear from our residents tend to cluster around five themes.
The first is location. A well-chosen park sits in genuinely beautiful surroundings, countryside, garden settings, and mature trees that you would struggle to buy into through a conventional housing market. Our Cheshire parks are minutes from Wilmslow, Alderley Edge, Knutsford and Lymm. Our Yorkshire parks at Acaster Malbis are on the edge of York. Our Shropshire and Herefordshire parks open straight onto the rural landscape. Our parks are located in Cirencester is located in the heart of the Cotswolds which is a designated area of outstanding natural beauty.
The second is community. People know each other, look out for each other, and there is a level of social connection that has become rare in conventional residential streets without losing the privacy that comes with having your own front door and your own garden.
The third is the financial logic. Releasing equity from a larger family home, paying off your mortgage to get away from high monthly payments, taking out finance with us at a monthly fee you can afford if needed, paying no stamp duty, dropping into council tax Band A, paying commercial utility rates, and seeing your monthly running costs fall significantly is a genuinely attractive proposition for someone in their late fifties or sixties planning their retirement.
The fourth is low maintenance. No more painting external woodwork on a three-storey Victorian house. No more wrestling with a hectare of garden. No more boiler replacements every few years. Your new home is modern enough and well-built enough that the maintenance burden almost disappears.
The fifth is what one of our residents, Mrs Douglass, summed up better than we could: “it feels like I’m on a permanent holiday”.
Where to go from here
If you are weighing up whether park home living might be right for you, the most useful next step is to come and visit. We have parks across Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and Yorkshire, and our team will happily show you around any of them where we have availability, talk you through the financials in detail, and answer the questions specific to your situation.
Call our head office 9 to 5, Monday to Friday
01625 524021
Or call our sales team directly 9 to 5, Monday to Friday
0776 553 1718
0776 788 4575
0779 651 0670
