Ad disclosure: this site contains affiliate links, marked (Ad). If you enquire or book through one, we earn a commission from the operator, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what our guides say.
Lodge LedgerUK ownership, honestly costed

Costs

How much does a static caravan lose in value each year?

No UK park or manufacturer publishes a depreciation table. Here is what Haven's own new and used prices show when you compare them on the same day, plus the exit costs and the tax rule that stops you claiming the loss.

Published 2026-07-29 · updated 2026-07-29 · 9 min read · all figures sourced below

A static caravan loses most of its value in the first few years, and by about year ten the price stops tracking age at all. On 29 July 2026 Haven listed a 2017 ABI Horizon at £14,686 and a new 2026 ABI New Horizon at £29,995, so a nine year old caravan sells for just under half the price of its current equivalent on the same operator's own website.

That is the honest answer, and it comes with a warning. No UK park operator, manufacturer or trade body publishes a depreciation schedule. The percentages you find online, the "15% to 20% in year one" figures, trace back to no published dataset that anyone names. This article uses only prices that operators and manufacturers have published themselves.

What do published prices actually show?

Haven's own listings are the most useful evidence available, because new and used stock appear on the same site, priced on the same basis, sited on a park. These were the prices on its static caravans for sale page on 29 July 2026.

Model Year Size Price
Willerby Salsa Eco 2014 35ft x 12ft £14,531
ABI Horizon 2015 36ft x 12ft £14,531
Atlas Moonstone 2015 36ft x 12ft £14,531
ABI Horizon 2016 36ft x 12ft £14,686
ABI Horizon 2017 36ft x 12ft £14,686

Look at the spread. Four model years, three manufacturers, and £155 separates the cheapest from the most expensive. A 2014 Willerby and a 2017 ABI are priced within 1% of each other.

Haven advertises pre-owned holiday homes from £14,995, a figure its page dates as at 24 June 2026, and new holiday homes from £29,995. Park Holidays advertises holiday homes from £9,995 with a 10% deposit. Haven notes that its prices exclude 2026 site fees, running costs and add-ons requested at the point of sale, so the purchase price is only the start. Our true cost of owning a holiday lodge breaks down what follows, and the ownership cost calculator will run your own numbers.

How much does a static caravan lose in the first year?

Nobody publishes the figure, because no operator publishes what an individual used unit sold for when it was new. Two costs on day one are documented, and both are real money you will not see again.

The first is VAT. HMRC's Notice 701/20 sets three rates. A caravan not exceeding 7 metres in length or 2.55 metres in width is standard rated at 20%. One that exceeds either dimension, but is not built to a version of BS 3632 that came into effect on or after 17 June 2005, is reduced rated at 5%. One that exceeds the dimensions and is built to that BS 3632 standard is zero rated, though its removable contents, the tables, chairs, fridge and so on, are standard rated at 20% either way.

ABI's retail price list for its 2026 collection, effective from 1 September 2025, shows what that means in cash. The Coworth 36ft by 12ft three bedroom has a net price of £37,420, VAT of £3,003.64, and an RRP including VAT of £40,423.64. Swift Group's suggested price list for 2026 models, also effective from 1 September 2025, prices the Royan 28ft by 12ft two bedroom at £35,044 net and £37,672.15 retail. The Bordeaux 38ft by 12ft two bedroom is £50,887.60 net.

The second is the gap between a manufacturer's RRP and what a park charges. Those RRPs exclude delivery, siting and connection. Victory Leisure Homes advertises the Verve from £34,808, the Ashberry from £38,870, the Davenport from £76,131 and the Lakewood from £84,187 on its own website. A park adds its margin, siting and services on top. When you sell, none of that comes back, because the next buyer is buying a caravan that is already sited.

So the useful way to think about year one is not a percentage. It is the sum of the VAT, the siting, the park's margin and the finance you have already paid. Three thousand pounds of irrecoverable VAT on a £37,420 caravan is roughly 8% of the net price gone before you have used it.

Do static caravans ever stop losing value?

Yes, and the Haven listings show where the floor is. Once a caravan is nine or ten years old, its price converges on the operator's entry-level used figure, which was £14,531 to £14,995 at Haven on 29 July 2026, and stops falling in any meaningful way.

What replaces age as the price driver is the pitch licence. Haven states that the initial licence period for occupation of a pitch is 12 years, and says most parks work to licences of around 10 to 20 years. On the same page Haven cites its lead supplier Willerby, whose estimate is that you can continue to use a holiday home for thirty years or more.

Those two numbers do not agree. The unit is built to last three decades. The contract that lets it stand on a pitch runs for one or two. Value collapses towards the shorter of the two, not the longer, because a buyer is buying the remaining licence as much as the caravan. Haven's position is that it lets owners keep a caravan on its parks for as long as they want, which is more generous than the 12 year licence implies, but that is an operator's statement of intent rather than a term with a number attached. What happens at the end of a licence is covered in what happens when your caravan licence expires.

Does the build standard change how fast the value falls?

It changes the price you pay on day one, which changes the size of the drop. Victory's 2026 price list gives the Riverwood 40ft by 14ft two bedroom the same net price of £71,996 in both build standards. The EN 1647 version carries £2,951.10 of 5% VAT that the BS 3632 version does not, so the totals are £78,759.88 and £75,808.78. Same caravan, same net price, £2,951.10 difference in tax.

The effect is larger further up the range. Victory prices the Liberte Lodge 40ft by 20ft two bedroom, built to BS 3632, at £113,000 net with £0.00 of 5% VAT and £2,861.16 of standard rate VAT on the removable contents. The total is £115,861.16. A £113,000 unit at the 5% rate would have carried thousands more.

What this does not tell you is whether BS 3632 units hold their value better in percentage terms. That would need published resale prices for the same models over time, and no operator or manufacturer publishes them. Anyone who quotes you a percentage difference between BS 3632 and EN 1647 resale performance is estimating.

What does it cost to get out?

The sale price is not what you receive. The National Association of Caravan Owners says park commission on an on-pitch sale is commonly around 15%, and that the exact figure must be clearly stated in your agreement. NACO also puts disconnection charges at anywhere between £300 and £3,500, and says the range across the UK varies dramatically.

Run that against the Haven figures. A caravan that sells on pitch for £14,686 with 15% commission returns £12,483. Take off a disconnection charge if you are moving it and the number falls again. Depreciation is the headline loss, and the exit costs are the part people forget to budget for.

NACO also notes that parks may require their own sales team to handle the transaction, or may allow a private sale subject to approving the buyer. Its position is that a park can refuse a buyer, but the refusal must be reasonable and based on written criteria, and any approval process must be applied fairly and consistently.

Can you claim the loss against tax?

No. A static caravan that stays tangible movable property is a chattel, and HMRC's Capital Gains Manual at CG64325 states plainly that a mobile caravan is a chattel as it is a tangible moveable asset.

Section 44 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 defines a wasting asset as one with a predictable life not exceeding 50 years, and provides that plant and machinery is in every case regarded as having a predictable life of less than 50 years. Section 45(1) then exempts gains on the disposal of tangible movable property that is a wasting asset. HMRC applies this to caravans directly: if no capital allowances were available on the cost, any gain is exempted by section 45(1).

Section 16(2) makes the rule work both ways. The provisions that distinguish chargeable gains from non-chargeable ones apply equally to distinguish allowable losses from non-allowable ones. An exempt gain means a non-allowable loss. You lose £15,000 over nine years and you cannot set a penny of it against anything.

One qualification from CG64325. If the caravan becomes so affixed to the land that it is part of it, it stops being a chattel, and the exemption stops applying. HMRC says a caravan connected to water, electricity and other essential services, permanently located on a site, may be regarded as a dwelling house even though it is technically still mobile, and that this is a question of fact. If you are letting the caravan out commercially, take advice, because capital allowances change the position again.

What the numbers work out at

Take the two Haven figures and treat them as if they were one caravan, which they are not. A unit bought new at £29,995 and sold at £14,686 nine years later has lost £15,309, an average of £1,701 a year, or a compound decline of about 7.6% a year.

Three reasons to distrust that arithmetic. The 2017 Horizon did not cost £29,995 when it was new in 2017, it cost less. The decline is not smooth, it is front loaded. And £29,995 is Haven's cheapest new caravan, not the average one. The figure is an illustration of scale, not a rate you can apply to your own purchase.

Before you buy, ask the park two questions in writing. What did this model sell for new, and what has the park resold comparable units of the same age for in the last twelve months. A park that will not answer either question is telling you something. Anyone selling a static caravan as an asset that holds its value is contradicted by their own website.

Sources