The residential parks market broadly mirrors the peaks and troughs of the traditional housing market. The end of 2020 saw UK house prices 6.5% higher than a year before- the sharpest rise in six years.
House prices were 0.9% higher in November than in October, with the average property valued at £229,721, according to Nationwide data. This has been led by an increase in the furlough scheme propping up a large amount of the economy. There has also been an element of pent-up demand from the first period of lockdown, and buyers have been taking advantage of a lack of stamp duty. Whilst this is not applicable on residential park homes, it does increase fluidity within the market place and allow purchasers of park homes to sell existing bricks and mortar property.
Price rises are predicted to slow next year and the ability for sales will be reduced with park homes often being the end of the buying chain. The marketplace will have to weather the stamp duty payments returning, mortgage rates above their pre-Covid level and the impact of the weakened labour market.