Park Home Financing: Why You Can't Get a Normal Mortgage 2026/27

Why a Normal Mortgage Isn't Available

A standard residential mortgage works because the lender takes a legal charge over land — either the freehold or a long leasehold interest — which gives them security they can enforce (ultimately through repossession and sale of the land and buildings) if the borrower stops paying. A park home doesn't fit this model. Legally, most park homes are classed as chattels: movable personal property, similar in legal character to a caravan or a boat, even though in practice they're often large, well-appointed, and permanently sited.

Because the resident typically leases the pitch from a site owner rather than owning the land beneath the home, there's no freehold or leasehold title for a mortgage lender to secure a charge against. This is the fundamental reason mainstream banks and building societies don't offer park home mortgages — it isn't about affordability or the applicant's credit profile, it's that the legal structure of park home ownership doesn't match what a mortgage product is designed to secure.

How Specialist Park Home Finance Works

In place of a mortgage, a small number of specialist lenders offer park home loans structured more like hire purchase agreements or personal loans secured against the home itself (rather than the land). Under these arrangements, the lender retains an interest in the home until the loan is repaid, similar in principle to car finance, and can repossess the home itself — not the land — if repayments aren't kept up.

These products typically come with:

• Higher interest rates than mainstream mortgages, often several percentage points above
• Shorter maximum terms, commonly in the 10 to 15 year range rather than 25 to 35 years
• Smaller panels of specialist lenders, meaning less competition and fewer product options
• Affordability assessments similar in spirit to a mortgage application, checking income against the loan and other outgoings — you can use the Mortgage Affordability Calculator as a rough proxy for how lenders think about serviceable repayments, even though the underlying product is different

Worked Cost Comparison: Park Home Loan vs Mainstream Mortgage

The table below illustrates, for a £100,000 loan amount, how a shorter term and higher rate on specialist park home finance compares to a hypothetical mainstream mortgage rate over a longer term — figures are illustrative only and will vary by lender and individual circumstances.

Even though many park homes cost considerably less to buy than an equivalent house, the combination of a higher rate and a much shorter term means the monthly repayment on a park home loan can end up higher, proportionally, than a mortgage on a more expensive bricks-and-mortar property — an important reality check for buyers comparing headline purchase prices. Running comparable figures through the Mortgage Calculator for a conventional property alongside a specialist quote helps put the true monthly cost gap in perspective.

Pitch Fees and Mobile Homes Act Protections

Alongside any finance repayments, park home residents pay a pitch fee to the site owner, covering the right to keep the home on its plot and typically including access to shared site infrastructure and services. Unlike finance repayments, which are fixed by the loan agreement, pitch fees can be reviewed — but the Mobile Homes Act sets out a statutory process site owners must follow, generally limiting reviews to once a year, requiring a formal consultation with residents before any increase, and tying increases to justifiable factors such as the Retail Prices Index. Residents who believe an increase is unreasonable or improperly proposed have a right to challenge it at a tribunal rather than simply having to accept it.

This regulatory framework exists precisely because park home residents don't own the underlying land and are otherwise in a comparatively weak negotiating position relative to the site owner — without it, pitch fees could be increased with little constraint.

Resale, Commission, and Depreciation

Selling a park home differs from selling a house in two important ways. First, the site owner often has a right to approve the incoming buyer, since they're effectively agreeing to a new resident joining the site under their existing licence. Second, site owners are entitled by law to a capped commission on the sale price — commonly up to 10% — which comes straight off the seller's proceeds and has no equivalent in a normal house sale.

Combined with the fact that many park homes depreciate over their working life rather than appreciating the way land and buildings typically do, the overall economics of park home ownership can look quite different from traditional homeownership: lower upfront cost and no Stamp Duty (since it isn't real property), offset by ongoing pitch fees, costlier finance, resale commission, and the likelihood of the home itself losing value over time.

Questions to Ask Before Committing

• What term and rate is the specialist lender offering, and how does the total cost compare to renting or to a mortgaged property of similar cost?
• What has the pitch fee history looked like on this specific site over the past five years?
• Does the site have a good compliance record with the Mobile Homes Act's consultation requirements?
• What commission rate applies on resale, and is it the statutory maximum or negotiable?
• Has an independent valuation been obtained, given that park homes don't follow the same market comparables as houses?