All over Europe, holiday parks are in the midst of a transformation. Centre Parcs in Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands are currently being renovated with the addition of new slides installed in their water parks, a more advanced splash pad construction, newly spruced up cottages to stay in, fancy technology such as lights and sound effects added to bowling lanes and the addition of new nature experience in their woodlands.
The landlord of the Centre Parc sites and the world’s largest property investor, Blackstone, bought the sites in 2006 for around €630m, whilst Pierre et Vacances, the operator, has recently signed up for long extensions to its leases on the sites. The Centre Parcs Europe resorts will get the €200m upgrade as part of an agreement between Blackstone and Pierre et Vacances to prepare the properties for a sale process.
As long as the sales process goes ahead, property investors will be given the chance of a lifetime to get involved with the continental European holiday parks market on a grand scale. Centre Parcs Europe is unique to most other European Holiday Parks as it remains to be dominated by small family-owned businesses, whereas is European countries such as France, sites are often owned by big municipalities.
Profits from UK Holiday Parks
Within the United Kingdom, the large-scale marketing campaigns coining words such as “staycation” have aimed to persuade Britons to have their summer holidays within the UK, many of whom choose to do so in UK holiday parks. Of course, marketing has always worked to bring in visitors from other countries too, adding to the growth of the profit margins of UK holiday parks.
Over the past few years, profits from UK holiday parks have been on the steady increase, on par with alternative property assets, with many people persuaded by the aforementioned marketing to stay local rather than impact the environment by travelling abroad. Believe it or not, Brexit has also had a positive impact on the profits within the sector.
Since the Brexit vote, the weaker pound has boosted the holiday park business by deterring people from traveling abroad. This can be backed up with data from travel group Thomas Cook. Although the main business with Thomas Cook is overseas holidays, they noted that in the last year, British holidaymakers have been staying local for their holidays, opting for UK Holiday Parks rather than Continental ones.
The New generation of UK Holiday Parks
Many people when they hear of UK Holiday parks will envisage small caravans, closed in environments and overcrowded facilities. However, that is all set to change. ‘Mobile Homes’ in UK Holiday parks will now, more often than not, come fitted with flat screen televisions, swimming pool facilities costing up to £40m, such as in the Bognor Regis site, and ‘natural environments.
The more money invested; the more people attracted to UK Holiday Parks. So, although you have unlikely considered a holiday park as an investment, now may be the time to investigate this unique opportunity.
