Can you get a mortgage on a park home?

Why will a bank not lend on it?

Because there is nothing for the bank to take security over that behaves like a house. A park home is a chattel: in law it is movable property, closer to a vehicle than to a building, and the land underneath it belongs to the park.

If you default on a mortgage the lender takes the house and the land and sells it. On a park home there is no land to take, and the home itself depreciates and can only be sold on the park, to a buyer the park also has an interest in. That is not security a mortgage lender will price.

The same fact is why there is no stamp duty land tax. No land transaction, no land tax, and no land to mortgage. One fact, two consequences, one good and one inconvenient.

What finance actually exists?

Specialist lenders offer unsecured personal loans and, less commonly, hire purchase or a loan secured against the home as a chattel. Terms are typically shorter than a mortgage and rates higher, because the asset depreciates.

Some buyers release equity from a house they are selling or already own, which is a conventional secured loan against conventional property and has nothing to do with the park home. That is the most common route by a wide margin, because most buyers at these parks are selling a house.

If you are being offered something described as a park home mortgage, read what it actually is. The word is used loosely.

What should I ask a lender?

The APR and whether it is fixed or variable. The term. The total amount repayable over the term, in pounds, not just the monthly figure. Any early repayment charge. Whether the loan is secured on the home, and what happens to it if you sell.

And whether the lender is authorised by the FCA, which you can check yourself on the Financial Services Register rather than taking anybody's word for it.

Ask the same questions of any introduction we make. An introduction is not a recommendation and we do not receive advice responsibilities by making one.

Does part exchange help?

Often, and it is the route that avoids finance altogether. On the residential parks a valuation of your current home is arranged and a figure offered in writing, and you are never obliged to accept it. On the holiday parks it is settled case by case; ask the sales team.

Treat the offer as one option among several rather than as the value of your house. Get a second valuation from an estate agent who is not involved in the transaction.

What does the purchase actually require up front?

A reservation fee to hold the plot while the paperwork is prepared, which comes off the price. Then the balance on completion, which is usually six to ten weeks later for a home in stock and longer for one built to order.

In that window you have the licence or agreement, the park rules, the pitch fee schedule and the written statement, for at least 28 days before you are asked to sign. Use it. Take legal advice from a solicitor who has handled park homes; it is an hour's work for them and it is the best money in the transaction.