I don’t buy it either.
I am selling my Dad’s place now and in no rush to buy something, it might work out OK.
Edit: I am not living in a caravan
Or buy now, live in a caravan for 18 months in a hope of having a house that won’t fall down at the end and then sell everything else to try and patch it up when the budget frazzles like Wayne.
Stop it, Claire keeps going on about getting a static in Wales, I’ve managed to fend it off so far by muttering dark tidings about it being a depreciating asset and escalating site fees, but she keeps saying it could be an ideal base for searching for somewhere we’d like to retire to…
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She does know Norfolk is the other side of the country???
She’s heard it gets a bit windy over that way.
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Obviously prefers rain then 
There’s lots of reasons not to do it - topmost being all the other cunts on the pikey farm!
As you say, it takes the van itself a maximum of 10 years to depreciate to “have to pay to have someone take it away” - and I’m not joking about this. Site owners can and will compel you to fuck the old van off after as little as 5 years from new AND you can often only buy one that they sell (“Planning regs mate”).
You never own anything worth a toss, you have no rights of any kind, and you can get no functionally-meaningful insurance (these things burn, blow-away and float-off in floods with alacrity, and are hilariously easy to rob). Absolute mug’s game!
They are also an obscene fucking eyesore that have ruined huge tranches of Britain’s (former) beauty spots.
Also, it’s Wales - if you can bear a 5 minute drive to the wet stuff you can buy a house for 20p.
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Although that pic is an improvement on the last version of the outhouse.
Could it? It’s static, so would only work if you know where you want to retire to within about 50 miles. Whereas hiring a cottage for £300 a week off season would allow you to actually explore the country a bit at a time. Even a mobile caravan is at least mobile!
Thank you Adam, another strand to add to my argument.
I really hate them. They’re only marginally preferable to a decent tent in terms of holiday accommodation and the thought of owning got one of the fucking things fills me with dread.
A really basic one starts at about £30k and you can get a reasonable motor home for that, which will hold its value better and be more flexible in terms of, well, everything really.
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My parents spent £65k on a motor home. As far as I can tell, they both thought the other really wanted one, but they’re never any good at actually talking to each other.
On the first trip to Cornwall my dad fucking hated it as it was such a palaver to manoeuvre. Mum hated it as it was small and they couldn’t put down roots where they were. Also, you don’t have a car for actually going out in the evenings.
They sold it after that one disastrous trip for a 50% loss. I have often said to them that I don’t mind them spending my inheritance, but is rather they didn’t actually set fire to suitcases of money, KLF-style.
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So true, two of my neighbours own 2 or 3 year old behemoth motor homes, one of which cost £80K, so I’m told.
Both go out 2 or 3 weekends a year. Can’t see the sense in it, that’s a lot of decent holidays.
A couple of years ago we were camping in Holland. We’ve been camping with the kids all their lives so we’re pretty good at making it comfortable and vaguely glamping-ish.
One day a huge, brand new German motor home rocked up and parked in the next space to us. It was pretty impressive watching it self level and expand its sides out, all done via an iPad/touchscreen thingy.
Anyway as we were bbqing our dinner they set up their outside dining area, which was covered by an awning which emerged from the motor home activated from the iPad. Then we heard the microwave ping and they had microwave lasagna for their tea. They did wander over and borrow our corkscrew because they’d forgotten theirs.
The next morning I was enjoying my bialetti coffee and the guy asked to borrow the bialetti because he couldn’t work the built in espresso machine…
I looked up the motor home, and it cost £250k…
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Feck ! And they seemed such nice people.
The person who bought it would not lose 50% unless they kept it for an inordinate amount of time. Decent used ones, as long as they’re looked after, hold their money really well.
Chavs.
We have friends who have a similar type humongous motor home with bits that hydraulically extend etc, they travel all over Europe in it for months at a time.
Felt like such a twat the first time I parked our VW camper next to it!
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