One-level luxury

A new luxury home, ready-furnished, on one level, with a manageable garden, in a secure location… A new start in a new area, perhaps – and a ready-made community of potential friends…The park home lifestyle is very enticing.
 

One-level living made easy

When the time comes to downsize – the family having left, a big house is no longer a necessity – many people think the best option is a bungalow. But the choice is limited; they’re seldom in new-build portfolios. But you CAN get a sparkling new ‘bungalow’ on a park home estate.

What’s more, you will have a ready-made circle of neighbours in the same age group and potentially with shared interests.

A luxury home, fully furnished (this is your chance to part with old furniture of which you’ve long ago become bored), with a superbly-equipped kitchen, and ready to move into… It’s a dream beginning for a retirement lifestyle!

Moving made easy, too

Making the move from a traditional home to the park home lifestyle is easy. If you’ve always thought of moving house as stressful, going for a park home is the exact opposite. There are companies whose service is dedicated to making your move easy; some even sort out the sale of your existing property, making it possible to move into your new home at a time that suits you rather than having to wait for a sale to complete. Many even offer part-exchange services.

All new furniture

Some park home manufacturers offer you choices of furniture and colour schemes, enabling you to personalise your new home to match your tastes. You get choices of tiles, choices of kitchen woodwork, and fabric options, from some manufacturers. Some even offer you choices of entire kitchens and bathrooms. Or you can just walk into a park home and take it as the manufacturer’s interior design experts have fashioned it.

Moving to a park home is a chance for a new start. You might have furniture – really nice furniture – that you’ve lived around for decades and you’d rather like to update. But replacing all of your furniture at once is something people rarely do, even when they move house. Buying a park home removes all of that, because you are buying the furniture along with your new home, to your taste and in your style. Starkly modern, bright and light, or traditional, homely and cosy, it’s all available.

Guidance on prices

Park home prices follow the trends of house prices, so in regions where house prices are high, you will pay more for a park home. That means, generally, the closer to the coast you are, the more you’ll have to pay for the privilege, simply because demand is high, pushed up by the fact that everyone wants to live there!

You can, of course, gain hugely, if you are selling a bricks-and-mortar house in a high-priced area such as the south east, and buying a park home in a region where property values are much lower. In all probability that means you’ll be able to buy a bigger and more luxurious park home than the house you’re selling, and still put chunks of money in the bank; your holiday fund, perhaps!

There are park homes to suit a huge variety of budgets. Smaller ones, pre-owned ones, less spectacularly and sophisticatedly equipped ones.

Whatever type of park home you go for – and wherever you choose for your new lifestyle, one thing’s for sure – park homes really are dreams come true in lots of ways.

Your savings

Selling a bricks-and-mortar house and going for a park home is likely to release a lot of capital; money, perhaps, for exotic holidays – or just to give you added security that you have capital available should you need it. And a park home is likely to cost you less to run than a larger house. Energy efficiency is high, so they’re economical to heat. And council tax costs less, too.

Peace of mind

Some park home estates are gated, so straight away you have an enhanced level of security compared with a house on its own. Some park home estates have CCTV, too.

New friends

Making new friends is easy on a park home estate because most of the residents are retired, so everyone’s got time to talk and time for other people; contrast that with life in the work fast-lane where earning a living is the top time priority and there’s not enough time outside work to do the things you may want to, and talk to your neighbours.

Where to start…

Number one task is to choose your region, then your park – and then your new home!

How to decide on our new location

Yearning for a new start, a change in lifestyle, can be as daunting as it is exciting. Given the vast choice of residential parks in all parts of Britain, and accepting location is key, that’s obviously where to start.

Do you pick a favourite county? Close to the coast? Or with countryside views? All of that sounds idyllic. Or do you look at residential home parks in the region where you currently live, so it’s easier to keep in regular contact with friends?

Maybe you’ve lived in a region for work convenience or necessity and, when you retire, you don’t necessarily need to live in that area. Buying a park home gives you a vast choice of new locations, the great majority of them in lovely rural areas.

You can make a fresh start, perhaps, in a region you’ve come to know because you’ve spent holidays there; think of the enticing South West coast, the magnificence of Scotland, or the quiet, gentle county of Dorset, for example.

How to decide on your new home

So, you’ve chosen your park… Many parks have show homes ready-sited. That’s a great – and easy – option because you can see the view from your home, envisage the direction of sunset and sunrise… Your new home is just ready to move into.

The other option is to choose your plot, and then the home, from a range supplied by the park; most parks offer lots of options.

Some park home manufacturers have their own showgrounds. Among them are Tingdene Homes and Prestige Homeseeker, both in Northamptonshire and Omar and Wessex, which manufacture in Suffolk.

Building standard regulations

Residential park homes are built to a British Standard, BS3632. Many park home manufacturers construct to a standard above that regulation.

Delve into the world of thermal resistance, U-values and air permeability, and you are likely, initially, to get totally bemused. A manufacturer that provides a detailed guide to all of this is Lissett Homes, which makes luxurious park homes in North Yorkshire. www.lissetthomes.com/why-lissett-homes/construction-materials-methods is well worth a visit as a source of information.

Another website packed with construction information is Wessex – go to www.wessexparkhomes.co.uk/about-us/construction.

A factory tour is a brilliant way to learn the intricacies of park home construction.

Whichever region, park and home you choose, we’re sure your park home choice will be the start of a fantastic new lifestyle.