Park Home Finance and Your Options
No mainstream UK bank or building society offers a mortgage on a park home. Lenders treat them as a different asset class, because park homes sit on rented land and aren’t registered with the Land Registry.
That doesn’t mean you can’t finance one. Four routes exist, and which suits you depends on whether you already own a property, how fast you need to move, and how much capital you want to tie up.
Why a standard mortgage doesn’t apply
A traditional mortgage is secured against registered land. The land under a park home belongs to the park owner and isn’t registered to you, so there’s nothing for a lender to secure against.
Park homes are also movable. They can be lifted and transported, which is where the older name mobile home comes from. A lender looking at an asset that could physically leave the site treats the risk differently to a house.
If the ownership side of this is new to you, our guide to park homes and bungalows covers how the land arrangement works.
The four routes compared
| Route | Speed | Typical cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part exchange | Fast, cash buyer, no chain | Usually the lowest valuation of the four | Moving quickly and avoiding a broken chain |
| Buying outright | Slower, no third-party approval needed | No borrowing cost, but ties up capital | Buyers releasing equity from a previous sale |
| Bridging loan | Fast to arrange, short term | Higher rates than a mortgage, fixed short repayment window | Owners borrowing against a property that has not sold yet |
| Specialist park home loan | Moderate, standard FCA-regulated process | Higher rates than a mortgage, terms vary by lender | Buyers without capital for part exchange or outright purchase |
1. Part exchange
Part exchange releases the money from your current home through a provider rather than selling on the open market. You find the park home you want, the provider values your existing property, and the two transactions complete together.
The appeal is speed and certainty. No chain, no viewings, no sale falling through in week nine. The cost is the valuation. Part exchange providers buy at below market value, and that discount is the price of the convenience.
Worth doing the sums on what you’d lose against what a longer open market sale might gain you, then deciding whether the certainty is worth it.
2. Buying outright
Cash removes every approval step. Nobody underwrites you, nothing gets declined, and completion moves at whatever pace you and the park set.
Most buyers funding this way are downsizing and releasing equity from a house sale. Budget for the park’s own fees on top of the purchase price, and remember the money is then tied up in an asset that behaves differently to bricks and mortar on resale.
3. Bridging finance
A bridging loan covers the gap when you’ve found a park home but your existing property hasn’t sold. You borrow against the property you still own, buy the park home, then repay when the sale completes.
Rates run higher than a mortgage and the repayment window is short and fixed. That’s manageable when a sale is already progressing. It gets uncomfortable if the sale stalls, so go in with a realistic view of your own timeline rather than an optimistic one.
4. Specialist park home finance
Several FCA-regulated lenders write loans specifically for park homes. The process resembles a mortgage application without the land registration.
Expect higher rates than a residential mortgage. Loan-to-value and term vary quite a bit between lenders, so get current quotes rather than working from a figure someone quoted you last year.
What a lender will ask you
Before quoting, a specialist lender wants:
- The total sale price of the park home
- The address of the park, since location affects valuation
- The length of the site agreement available to you
- Full dimensions of the property
- What security measures the park has in place
They’ll also look at you rather than only the asset. How you plan to use the home, your credit history, your income, and how the repayments sit against it.
If you can’t get finance
Some applications don’t succeed, and the reasons are usually fixable. A short remaining site agreement, an older home, or a park the lender doesn’t recognise can all count against you.
Options at that point: choose a different home on a park the lender is comfortable with, put down a larger deposit, or wait and buy outright later. Speaking to more than one specialist lender is worth the afternoon, because their criteria differ more than you’d expect.
Is saving up the better answer?
Sometimes. Buying outright avoids interest entirely, and park homes cost less than the equivalent bungalow, so the saving period is shorter than it would be for a house.
Against that, waiting means paying rent or running a larger property for longer, and the home you want may sell. Run both numbers over a realistic timeframe before assuming that patience wins.
A note on holiday homes
Everything above covers residential park homes on protected sites. Holiday lodges and static caravans work differently again, and some parks offer their own finance directly. Ask the park what they provide before going to an outside lender.
When you’re ready to look, you can browse park homes for sale or search by region.