What to Check Before Buying a Caravan Park in Australia
Accommodation Finance
Due diligence · Site regimes · Approvals · Finance
Before you make an offer, identify the tenure, every site regime, the approved site count and layout, who owns the assets, whether personal property is encumbered, the maintainable earnings, the physical risks, and what must transfer for the park to keep trading after settlement. Those checks decide what you inherit, what the valuer can support, how much cash the deal really needs, and how the contract should protect the due-diligence and finance period.
Quick Answer
Before buying a caravan park in Australia, check the tenure, site agreements, approvals, asset ownership, maintainable earnings, physical risks, what must transfer at settlement, and the conditions protecting you before you go unconditional. Those checks tell you what you inherit, what the valuer can support, what the lender can fund, and how much cash the acquisition really needs.
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What should you check before buying a caravan park in Australia?
Eight things, and none of them is the price. Check the land tenure, every site agreement, the approved site count and layout, the current registration or licence file, who owns the cabins and equipment and whether any of it is encumbered, the maintainable earnings, the physical-risk and services file, and the contract and settlement path. Each one can change what you are actually buying, what a valuer can support, what a lender can fund, or how much cash you need to complete. The table below sets out what to check, what proves it, and what it changes.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Check | Ask for the proof | What it can change |
|---|---|---|
| Land tenure | The title, or the whole lease with every variation, option and required transfer consent. | What you actually own, whether a third party must consent to the transfer, and the outside limit on a leasehold loan term. |
| Site agreements | Every agreement plus a site-by-site schedule showing which legal regime each site sits under. | Which occupancy rights continue after settlement, what can be changed, and how a lender reads the income and security. |
| Approvals and registration | The development consent or planning permit, approved site plan, current registration or licence, last inspection report and current fire-safety file. | Whether the park is operating in the form the regulator approved and what compliance work or conditions you may inherit. |
| Asset ownership and security | A site-by-site asset schedule, evidence of ownership, and PPSR searches appropriate to the vendor and any serial-numbered personal property. | What actually transfers, which assets are outside the land security, and whether a lender, supplier or lessor has a registered security interest over personal property. |
| Maintainable earnings | At least three full trading years, with tax returns, BAS, profit and loss records, booking-system reports, banked revenue and the site-income schedule reconciled rather than read separately. | The earnings a going-concern valuer can verify, the working capital the park needs through the quiet season, and the amount of debt the business can support. |
| Physical risk and services | The records relevant to the site: flood, bushfire or coastal constraints, known subsidence, emergency planning, utilities and any regulator or council notices. | Whether an expansion assumption is realistic, whether further approvals or works are needed, and which issues belong in your physical and legal due diligence. |
| Going unconditional | The draft contract, due-diligence and finance conditions, valuation period, settlement date, and every Crown, council, landlord or other third-party consent path. | Which unresolved issue is still protected by a condition, when that protection expires, and how much third-party time sits inside the contract. Have your solicitor settle the clauses before you sign. |
| Settlement continuity and cash | A schedule of permit and lease transfers, employees, future bookings and deposits, utilities and embedded-network arrangements, supplier contracts, settlement adjustments, compliance work and working capital. | Whether the park can trade on day one, which obligations move with the deal, and how much cash you need above the equity contribution to the purchase price. |
What should be resolved before you go unconditional?
Before the caravan park contract becomes unconditional, know whether the valuation, finance approval, legal and accounting due diligence, lease or Crown consent, permit or registration transfer path and any transaction-specific approval are either resolved or genuinely protected by the contract. A check completed after a condition has expired can still reveal a problem, but what the contract then lets you do depends on the wording you signed and the law applying to the transaction.
The order matters. Classify the tenure and site agreements before the valuation, compare the approvals with what is physically on the ground, and request third-party records before the finance clock is already running. The broader purchase sequence is set out in how to buy a caravan park; the rest of this guide shows what each due-diligence check means and what happens when one of them does not line up.
This checklist is a summary of the guide below, not a separate source. Each of the eight checks is set out in its own section with the legislation, regulator guidance or registry page it rests on cited there, and every source was read on 19 or 20 September 2026. Where a position was read for some states and not others, the section says which.What are you actually buying when you buy a caravan park?
Three assets in one contract, and only one of them is the land. A park purchase bundles the land itself or a lease over it, a trading business with staff, bookings, a reputation and a licence to sell things, and a stack of occupancy agreements over individual sites that continue to run after settlement. Most buyers price the first two carefully and inherit the third without reading it.
The three things in one contract
The land is the part a valuer can describe. The business is the part an accountant can describe, usually as a going concern, because a park sold with its bookings, its staff and its trading name is a different thing from an empty paddock with power heads on it. The agreements are the part nobody describes, because they are not one document. They are dozens of arrangements of several different legal kinds, made at different times, on different terms, with different statutory consequences.
That matters on day one because the three are valued differently and funded differently. The land answers to a valuation. The business answers to earnings. The agreements answer to a statute, and a statute is not negotiable at the settlement table. If you want the acquisition process itself, step by step, that is set out separately in how to buy a caravan park, and this guide does not repeat it.
How do you prove the vendor owns the assets and check the PPSR?
An asset schedule and a PPSR search answer different questions. The asset schedule is the vendor's statement of what is included in the sale and should be backed by ownership records. The PPSR is the Australian Government register of security interests in personal property, not a register of ownership. A clean PPSR search therefore does not prove the vendor owns a cabin, vehicle or item of plant, and an ownership schedule does not prove the asset is free of a registered security interest.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Check | What it answers | What it does not answer |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor asset schedule | What the seller says is included, who says they own it, and which serial numbers or identifying details should transfer. | Whether somebody else has a registered security interest over the personal property. |
| PPSR searches | Whether registered security interests appear against relevant personal property, serial-numbered assets or the seller/grantor. | Legal ownership. The PPSR itself says it is not an ownership register. |
| Title, lease and fixture review | Whether an improvement is part of the land, sits under the lease, or is separate personal property. | Whether movable personal property has another registered security interest unless the PPSR and finance documents are also checked. |
Personal property generally excludes land, buildings and fixtures, so classification comes first. For vehicles, trailers, movable plant and other personal property, ask your solicitor to settle the search and release requirements before settlement. If the difficult item is a cabin or dwelling sitting on a site, the separate caravan park cabins: chattel or fixture guide works through that classification problem.
Sources: Personal Property Securities Register, Why register on the PPSR? and Protecting your business assets, read 20 September 2026. The PPSR records security interests, not ownership, and personal property generally excludes land, buildings and fixtures.Why the site agreements are the part buyers miss
An occupancy sheet shows sites, rates and occupancy. It does not show which of those sites carry statutory rights that transfer with the land, which can be ended on short notice, and which cannot be ended on the timetable a feasibility assumes. Two parks with identical occupancy sheets can be completely different acquisitions once you read what each site actually is.
And the reason this reaches the finance is simple. A lender prices the income it believes it could recover if it ever had to. Income attached to a site the owner can turn over freely is not the same risk as income attached to a site whose occupant has statutory tenure. So the mix of regimes across the park is a credit input, not just a marketing line.
Which rules apply to each site in the park, and what survives the sale?
The same caravan on the same concrete slab is a different legal animal in each state, and the difference decides whether that site is income a lender will count. A park's sites are not one thing. A tourist site, a long-stay casual site and a long-term residential site sit under different statutes, carry different termination rights, and transfer to a buyer on different terms.
What changes when a site stops being a tourist site
A tourist site is a short stay. The occupant arrives, pays a nightly or weekly rate, and leaves. Once occupation stops being short and starts being a home, a different statute picks it up, and the park operator's freedom to end the arrangement narrows sharply. In New South Wales the line is drawn explicitly: the Holiday Parks (Long-term Casual Occupation) Act 2002 does not apply to a site "ordinarily used or intended to be used for tourist arrangements or other holiday purposes" unless it is long-term casual occupation of the kind the Act describes. That same Act also shuts out the general residential tenancies legislation for the agreements it covers, so a buyer cannot reason from the residential rules they already know.
Why the day count is not one national conversion rule
Each state draws the line with a different test and a different number, and the test is not only about days. It is about what the occupant owns, where they actually live, and what the operator agreed to.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Jurisdiction | The threshold | What the occupant must own or do | What binds the new owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | No more than 180 days in any 12-month period under an agreement to be a casual occupant for at least 12 months. This is an eligibility condition, not an automatic conversion after day 180. | Principal residence elsewhere; the occupant installs their own moveable dwelling and leaves it on the site while the agreement runs. | Section 49 prohibits contracting out. The Act can apply whether or not the park holds an approval under the Local Government Act 1993. |
| Northern Territory | No day count is published in the operator guidance read for this guide. The Caravan Parks Act 2012 governs the occupancy agreement. | A written agreement binds only if both parties have signed it. | The statutory default agreement applies if the written agreement is unsigned, is not legal, or the arrangement is verbal. Missing paperwork is not a missing agreement. |
| Queensland | 42 days or less. It may be extended once for up to a further 42 days; another extension makes it a long-term tenancy by law. | Covers a caravan, caravan site, houseboat or rented manufactured home. Owner-occupied manufactured homes fall under a different Act. | Long-term tenancies have longer notice and statutory grounds for ending them. Holiday lettings are excluded. |
| Tasmania | 90 days or longer as the resident's principal place of residence, including shorter agreements that cumulatively exceed 90 days. | The resident owns the dwelling. Operator-owned onsite vans or cabins are excluded. | Passed Parliament in August 2026 and commences on proclamation. Check the commencement date before relying on it. |
| Victoria | At least 60 days without a break, as the person's main residence, and not for a holiday or other non-residential purpose. | Written permission from the park owner, such as a signed residential agreement. | Status turns on occupation plus the operator's written permission, so existing written agreements must be reviewed. |
This table covers the five jurisdictions whose position was read at source for this guide. Western Australia, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory each run their own scheme, none of them is set out here, and the tests above do not carry across. For a park in those three, check the governing Act rather than reasoning across from these five. An honest short table is more useful to a buyer than a long one with invented rows.
Do not read the figures as one conversion scale. In New South Wales, 180 days is part of the eligibility test for a long-term casual occupation agreement and is a maximum occupation allowance, not a rule that a site converts after 180 days. Queensland's 42-day rule is different: a short-term tenancy may be extended once for up to a further 42 days and another extension makes it long term. Victoria's 60 days and Tasmania's 90 days sit inside their own tests, and the Northern Territory guidance read for this guide publishes no day count. There is no national number.
Read the middle column before the day count. In each state the threshold is a compound test, and a buyer who checks only the number of nights will misclassify sites in both directions.
What you cannot contract out of
This is the part that changes a feasibility. In New South Wales, section 49 of the Act is headed "Contracting out prohibited", and it provides that the Act and its regulations "have effect despite any stipulation to the contrary in any agreement, contract or other arrangement", whether oral or written, and whether made before or after the section commenced. No clause in a site agreement, and no special condition in a contract of sale, annuls or varies it.
The Northern Territory makes the same point from the opposite direction, and it is the version that catches buyers of untidy files. A written occupancy agreement there binds only if both parties have signed it, and it cannot exclude the rights and responsibilities in the Caravan Parks Act 2012. Where the written agreement is unsigned, is not legal, or where the arrangement was only ever verbal, the statutory default agreement applies instead, carrying all the rights and responsibilities the Act sets out. So a vendor who cannot produce paperwork for a site has not handed you a site with no agreement. They have handed you a site governed by the default.
Source: Northern Territory Government, caravan park occupancy agreement, read 19 September 2026. Northern Territory position only.The second limb is the one that catches buyers of older parks. The Act's definition of a holiday park captures the land "whether or not the caravan park or manufactured home estate is the subject of an approval under the Local Government Act 1993". An unapproved or partly approved park does not escape the statute. It carries the compliance gap and the statutory occupants at the same time.
A buyer prices a park on its occupancy sheet and its takings, assuming that a block of sites at the rear can be cleared and re-set as tourist sites inside the first year. On the file, a third of those sites turn out to carry long-term occupancy rights that continue after settlement and cannot be ended on the timetable the feasibility assumed. Nothing was hidden. The sheet simply recorded a rate and an occupancy, and the legal character of each site sat in the agreements and in the statute behind them. The purchase price still works; the improvement plan does not, and the funding was sized against the plan. Reading the site agreements before the valuation, rather than after, is what separates those two outcomes.
Why the mix changes what a lender counts
A lender discounts income it cannot easily recover. Long-term sites are usually stable income, and stability is a virtue, but they also come with tenure, with a different termination path and sometimes with a dwelling the occupant owns and the park does not. That is why the mix across the park is priced rather than averaged, and why the gearing on a park with a large long-stay component is read differently from a pure tourist operation. The gearing effect itself is set out in detail in how long-stay sites and cabins move a park's LVR, and this section is deliberately about the legal regime rather than the percentages. Where a cabin sits on a site is a separate question again, dealt with in whether a park cabin is a chattel or a fixture, and the answer changes what the security actually covers. If the land under the park is leased rather than owned, start with leasehold.
What must a caravan park be registered and approved for, and does it survive a sale?
Registration and licensing are state-specific, and planning approval is a separate file. Do not assume a sale resets either one. In New South Wales, council guidance says a change of owner or operator must be notified so the Approval to Operate records remain current; in Victoria, caravan-park registration is an ongoing local-council requirement with its own renewal cycle. A buyer therefore needs the current approval documents, their conditions, their expiry dates and the outstanding inspection items, not simply an assurance that the park is "approved".
Who registers a caravan park
In Victoria, the caravan park is registered with the local council. Consumer Affairs Victoria states plainly that you must register your park as a caravan park with the local council. The rules sit in Part 14 of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 and in the Residential Tenancies (Caravan Parks and Movable Dwellings Registration and Standards) Regulations 2024, which took effect on 29 June 2024 and are the instrument currently in force.
Sources for this section: Consumer Affairs Victoria, park registration, page last updated 8 October 2024; Planning Victoria, caravan parks and movable dwellings, page last updated 5 December 2025; and Victorian legislation register, statutory rule 58/2024, status in force, effective 29 June 2024. All read 19 September 2026. Victorian position only.That last point is worth pausing on, because published guidance around this topic is unusually unreliable. Some material still cites the superseded 2020 Regulations, and some names the wrong Act entirely, quoting a New South Wales statute for a Victorian registration. If you are checking a park's registration against a council page, check the Act and the year of the Regulations it names before you rely on anything else it says.
How often registration has to be renewed
It depends on the state, and the gap between them is wide enough to change a settlement. In Victoria it runs on a three year cycle. In Western Australia every caravan park must be licensed by its local government and the owner must renew that licence annually. Same asset, same kind of approval, and one of them can fall due within months of you taking the keys. That is the first thing to establish about a park's registration, before anything about its condition.
Sources: Government of Western Australia, Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety, caravan and camping grounds, page last updated 18 June 2026, on the Caravan Parks and Camping Grounds Act 1995 and the Caravan Parks and Camping Grounds Regulations 1997; Victorian position as sourced above. Both read 19 September 2026.Western Australia adds one more thing worth knowing before you inherit it. The published standards sit in the 1997 Regulations, but additional standards can be imposed on a particular park depending on the terms of that park's licence. So the licence document itself has to be read, not just confirmed to exist, because it can carry obligations that the Regulations alone will not tell you about.
In Victoria the cycle is three years. Victorian councils grant caravan park registration for a three year period, with renewal applications made to the council's environmental health function. So the buyer's question is not "is this park registered", it is "when does this registration expire, what condition was it granted in, and what is outstanding on the last inspection". A registration expiring three months after settlement is a very different acquisition from one with most of its term left.
What the standards actually cover
Fire prevention and safety, emergency management, water supply, sewage and drainage, laundry and amenity buildings, lighting, garbage, and smoke alarms in dwellings. One item is worth singling out because it is a separate document with its own author: all caravan parks must have a fire safety report issued by a fire authority, and the park owner must include that report in an application for registration or renewal of registration. That is a report from the fire authority, not a self-assessment, and it is the kind of document that takes time to obtain if it has lapsed.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Requirement | Who grants it | How long it lasts | What a buyer checks before settlement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration of the park | The local council. Victoria: Part 14 of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 and the Registration and Standards Regulations 2024, in force 29 June 2024. | Three years in Victoria, then renewal on application to the council. | The expiry date, the conditions it was granted on, and any outstanding items from the last inspection. |
| Planning or development approval | The council as planning authority, under the planning scheme for the land. | Runs with the land, subject to its own conditions and any lapse provisions. | Whether the approved site numbers and layout match what is actually on the ground today. |
| Fire safety report | A fire authority. It is issued to the park, not written by it. | Tied to the registration application or renewal it supports. | The date of the current report and whether anything in it is unactioned. |
| Amenity and site standards | Assessed by the council against the Regulations at registration and renewal. | Continuing. Compliance is not a one-off event. | Water, sewage, drainage, lighting, laundry, garbage and smoke alarms, and the cost of anything failing. |
| Crown or council lease consent | The state or the land manager, where the park sits on Crown or council land. | For the term of the lease, and the consent is a separate decision from the sale. | Whether consent to the transfer is required, who gives it, and how long it takes. |
Registration is a state and local matter, so the requirement types above are general and the Victorian detail inside them is Victorian. It is set out because Victoria is the jurisdiction read at source for this guide. A park in another state runs on its own Act and its own council process, and the four requirement types still apply.
What a buyer checks before settlement
Planning approval and registration are two different things, and a park can hold one without the other. A park can be registered and still be operating more sites than its planning permit contemplates. It can hold a planning permit for a layout that was never fully built. Either gap is survivable, and neither is a surprise anyone wants at the second valuation. The documents a lender will ask for on an accommodation acquisition are set out in the accommodation acquisition document pack, and the registration file belongs in it from the start rather than at the end.
What physical and operating risks should you check before signing?
Check the physical park against the approval file, then check the site risks and services that can constrain how it is used. Flood, bushfire and coastal exposure, known subsidence, fire access and emergency planning, utilities, and a layout that no longer matches the approved plan are due-diligence questions because Australian park regulation reaches well beyond the cabins a buyer can see on an inspection.
Hazards are part of the file, not just the insurance quote
Victoria's resident-disclosure rules are a useful warning list for a park buyer even though they are not a vendor-to-buyer disclosure regime. A Victorian park operator entering a new residency agreement must disclose whether the park or site is in a flood area, whether it has a history of subsidence, whether the operator owns the land or operates under a lease, and details about the electricity supply. Those are exactly the facts a buyer should want evidenced before relying on a site plan, an expansion case or an earnings forecast.
Source: Consumer Affairs Victoria, residency in a caravan park, read 20 September 2026. Victorian resident-disclosure rules are used here as a due-diligence prompt only; they are not stated as a statutory vendor-to-buyer disclosure duty.Planning constraints and services can change the use case
In New South Wales, current council guidance puts flooding, bushfire, coastal risk, the short-stay versus long-stay site mix, utilities, access and parking inside the planning conversation for caravan parks and manufactured-home estates. The same guidance makes the sequencing explicit: planning approval comes first, and an Approval to Operate can only be issued once the planning approvals are in place. A buyer comparing the approved plan with the physical park is therefore checking two different questions at once: what is permitted, and what is actually there.
Source: Central Coast Council, Caravan Parks & Manufactured Home Estates, updated 9 June 2026 and read 20 September 2026. New South Wales local-government example only; requirements vary by jurisdiction and site.Fire access and emergency planning are operating assets
In Victoria, caravan-park fire rules reach the layout and the ongoing operation of the park. CFA says owners must provide and maintain access for firefighters, separation to prevent fire spread, firefighting equipment and hazard management, and must keep fire-safety elements in working order. Its fire-safety inspection process also requires the park emergency management plan. That makes the current fire report, rectification evidence and emergency plan part of the acquisition file rather than documents to discover after handover.
Source: Country Fire Authority, Caravan Park Fire Safety, read 20 September 2026. Victorian position only.What land is the park on, and who actually owns it?
A park can sit on freehold, on a private lease, or on Crown or council land, and where the land is Crown land the landlord is the state. That single fact does more to the funding than anything else on this page, because a lender's term cannot outrun the tenure it is secured against.
The four tenure types
Four, and which one you are dealing with is the single largest structural variable in a park purchase. A park sits on freehold, on a private lease, on a Crown land lease, or on Crown or council land under a land manager. Each changes what actually changes hands at settlement, who has to consent to the sale, and how long a lender can lend for.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Tenure type | Who the landlord is | What you actually acquire | What it does to the fundable term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freehold going concern | Nobody. You own the land. | The land, the improvements and the trading business as one asset. | Term is set by credit policy and the borrower, not by a tenure ceiling. |
| Private leasehold | A private landlord under a commercial lease. | The business and the balance of the lease term, including options if they are exercisable and assignable. | The remaining term, options included, sets the outside limit a lender will work within. |
| Crown land lease | The state, through its Crown land agency. | In New South Wales, Crown Lands publishes that when you purchase a lease "you are buying the improvements on the leased land and the right to lease the land from the state". | Capped inside the remaining lease, and in Victoria Crown land leasing arrangements are limited to a maximum of 21 years. |
| Council managed Crown land | The Crown, with a council or Committee of Management as land manager. | An operating right under the land manager's arrangement, on the manager's terms. | Shortest of the four in practice, because the operating right and the consent to transfer are both outside the buyer's control. |
What you are buying on Crown land
Crown land parks are not a curiosity. In Victoria there are approximately 175 caravan and camping parks on Crown land, operated under a private lease arrangement or, in some cases, directly by the Committee of Management. In New South Wales, general leases over Crown land expressly cover caravan and tourist parks alongside marinas, clubs and other waterfront businesses, so the structure is ordinary rather than exotic.
What is different is what changes hands. The NSW Crown Lands wording is the clearest statement of it published anywhere on this subject, and it explains the gearing gap better than any percentage could.
What the tenure does, read at source
- The improvements, plus a right Buying a Crown lease is not buying land. NSW Crown Lands publishes that "when you purchase a lease, you are buying the improvements on the leased land and the right to lease the land from the state".Source: NSW Crown Lands, purchase your lease, crownland.nsw.gov.au, read 19 September 2026. Applies to New South Wales Crown land leases; other states administer their Crown land separately.
- 21 years, maximum In Victoria, while the land remains Crown land, leasing arrangements are limited to a maximum of 21 years.Source: Greater Shepparton City Council, published 27 March 2026. A Victorian Crown land statement, quoted in the context of a council securing the future of a Crown land park. It is a ceiling on the lease, not a statement about any lender's term.
- About 175 parks Approximately 175 caravan and camping parks sit on Crown land in Victoria, run under private lease or directly by a Committee of Management.Source: Forests and Reserves Victoria, Crown land caravan and camping parks, forestsandreserves.vic.gov.au, read 19 September 2026. Victoria only, and the source itself says "approximately".
- Division 3B, section 23H In New South Wales, the subdivision provisions that allow leases over caravan park and mobile home estate sites sit in Division 3B of the Conveyancing Act 1919, and section 23H requires a plan of subdivision for lease of such a park to have development consent to the subdivision.Source: NSW Land Registry Services, Registrar General's Guidelines, lease plans, caravan parks and mobile home estates, read 19 September 2026. The guideline uses the term mobile home estate.
Figures and provisions are quoted as published on the dates shown and are jurisdiction specific. Tenure rules change, and the position for any particular park depends on its own lease, its own title and its own land manager. General information only, not legal advice.
The twenty one year ceiling and what it does to a loan term
Work the logic forward. If the lease cannot exceed 21 years, and the park you are looking at is part way through its lease, then the remaining term is the outside boundary for any loan secured against it. Credit policy might be tighter than that. It will never be looser. So the tenure sets the maximum loan term before a single line of the credit assessment has been written, and a shorter term means a faster amortisation, a bigger repayment and a different serviceability answer on identical takings.
This is also why the freehold and leasehold conversation is not a preference question. It is a structural one, set out in freehold going concern compared with leasehold, and the land component of a holiday park deal is dealt with separately again in how a lender reads holiday park land.
The consent you do not control
On Crown land, the sale is conditional on a decision the buyer cannot make and cannot hurry. New South Wales publishes a dedicated application to obtain ministerial consent to transfer or change control of a Crown land lease, and states that consent for a lease transfer will not be granted where the lease account has unpaid debt. For some lease types the agency indicates a letter of consent may suffice, decided case by case. Either way, the consent sits with the state.
Two practical consequences. The settlement timetable has to carry that decision rather than assume it, and the arrears position on the lease account is a due diligence item in its own right, because somebody else's unpaid rent can stall your transfer. Build both into the contract rather than into the optimism.
Two parks are offered at the same price with much the same takings. One is freehold. One sits on a Crown lease with a limited term remaining. The freehold park is assessed on its valuation, its earnings and the borrower, and the term is a credit decision. The leasehold park is assessed inside its remaining tenure first, so the fundable term is bounded before earnings are even discussed, and the consent to transfer sits with the state rather than with the vendor. The two deals are not the same deal at the same price, and the difference shows up in the repayment rather than in the contract. The position for any particular park depends on its own lease.
What does an Australian caravan park actually earn?
Australian caravan parks generated a record $3.3 billion in revenue in calendar 2025, up 7 per cent year on year, and an individual park earns its share of that across four separate businesses stacked on one title. Unpowered sites, powered sites, cabins and long-stay sites each earn differently, cost differently to service, and behave differently when the season turns, and they do not carry equal weight with a lender. Ancillary income sits on top: the kiosk, the laundry, the boat ramp, the storage. The sector figures and their sources are set out below, and they describe the market rather than any particular park.
The four income lines in one park
Unpowered sites are the lowest yield per square metre and the cheapest to maintain. Powered sites carry infrastructure and the maintenance that comes with it. Cabins are the highest yield per site and the most capital hungry, and they raise their own question about whether the cabin is part of the land or a separate asset. Long-stay sites are the steadiest line and the most constrained, for every reason set out earlier on this page.
A park's takings are the sum of those four, and they are not interchangeable. Converting sites from one line to another is a planning question, a registration question and, where occupants have tenure, a statutory question, which is why a revenue forecast built by simply re-mixing the site plan usually overstates what is achievable.
What the sector earns
Record demand and record park revenue, for the periods published below. These are national sector measures read at source on 19 September 2026. They describe the market a park trades in. No park should be valued off them, and a vendor quoting them at you is quoting the market, not the business.
The sector, as published
- 17.3 million trips In the year ending December 2025 there were 17.3 million caravan and camping domestic overnight trips taken in Australia, the highest year on record.Source: Tourism Research Australia, caravan and camping data, tra.gov.au, read 19 September 2026. National demand measure for the year ending December 2025, not a park-level figure.
- 57.9 million nights, 87 per cent regional Travellers spent 57.9 million nights away, with 87 per cent of nights in regional Australia.Source: Tourism Research Australia, same release, read 19 September 2026. Nights, not occupied sites, and the regional share is a share of nights.
- $12.6 billion spent Travellers spent $12.6 billion on those trips in the year ending December 2025.Source: Tourism Research Australia, same release, read 19 September 2026. Total trip spend across the whole journey, which includes spending that never reaches a park.
- $3.3 billion in park revenue Caravan parks generated a record $3.3 billion in revenue in 2025, an increase of 7 per cent year on year, and New South Wales exceeded $1 billion in annual caravan park revenue for the first time.Source: Caravan Industry Association of Australia, State of the Industry 2026, published 14 June 2026, caravanindustry.com.au. Industry association measure of park revenue for calendar 2025.
These are sector figures for the periods stated. They describe the market a park trades in. They are not a forecast for any individual park, and no park should be valued off them. General information only.
Why two different revenue figures circulate
Because two different things are being counted. The $3.3 billion figure above is caravan park revenue for calendar 2025 as measured by the industry association. A noticeably larger figure also circulates for the same year, and it comes from a commercial industry classification that groups caravan parks together with holiday houses and other short stay accommodation in a single class. That broader class is not park revenue. It is park revenue plus a lot of accommodation that is not a park at all.
Both numbers can be correct and only one of them answers the question a buyer is asking. If you are benchmarking a park, use the park measure and note its date. If somebody quotes you the bigger number as evidence of what parks earn, ask what else is inside the class before you let it into a feasibility.
How do you verify a caravan park's maintainable earnings?
Do not verify profit by reading one profit and loss statement more carefully. Reconcile the same revenue and expense story through independent records. Australian Government guidance for buying an existing business says to examine the past three to five years of tax returns, BAS, receivables and payables, balance sheets, profit and loss records, cash-flow statements and sales records. For a caravan park, add the booking system, site schedule and future-booking ledger because those show what generated the reported sales.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Vendor claim | Cross-check it against | Question to resolve |
|---|---|---|
| Annual accommodation revenue | Tax returns, BAS, profit and loss records, banked receipts and booking-system totals. | Do the same sales appear through records created for different purposes? |
| Occupancy and cabin performance | Booking-system exports by site or cabin, rate history and the revenue actually banked. | Is the advertised occupancy producing the revenue the feasibility assumes? |
| Permanent and annual income | Site schedule, underlying agreements and receipts. | Does every recurring income line have an agreement and a site behind it? |
| Add-backs | General ledger, invoices and a written reason the expense will disappear for the buyer. | Is it truly non-recurring or just a normal cost being relabelled? |
| Owner wages and staffing | Payroll, rosters and the operating model the buyer will need after settlement. | Has profit been lifted by removing labour the next owner still has to replace? |
| Low repairs and strong EBITDA | Maintenance history, physical inspection, fire/compliance file and near-term capital works. | Has an expense disappeared, or has it simply been deferred? |
| Future bookings and deposits | Forward-booking report, deposit ledger and the settlement treatment in the contract. | Who received the cash and who has to deliver the stay or refund after settlement? |
The point is maintainability, not forensic perfection. A valuer and lender are trying to decide what the park is likely to earn under normal ownership after the sale, so unexplained add-backs, revenue that will not reconcile, deferred repairs and a working-capital hole all belong in the price and finance discussion before the purchaser treats EBITDA as settled.
Source: Australian Government, Buy an existing business, financial due diligence guidance, read 20 September 2026. The booking-system, site-schedule and park-specific reconciliation steps above are the asset-specific application of that general acquisition guidance.What a lender reads in the numbers
Twelve months, not a peak month. Caravan and camping demand is seasonal and heavily regional, which is the whole point of the 87 per cent figure above, and a park's best fortnight tells a credit assessor almost nothing. What gets read is the full trading year, the split between the four income lines, the direction of travel across several years, and how the park funds itself through the quiet part of the calendar. That last question has its own answer in off season working capital for accommodation businesses.
Earnings also drive the valuation rather than the other way round, because a park sold with its trade is valued as a going concern. What that means in practice, and why it produces a different number from a bricks and mortar assessment, is explained in going concern valuation explained, and the way a larger freehold park reads to a credit team is set out in how a lender reads a large freehold holiday park.
What will a lender advance against a caravan park?
The loan follows the valuation and the tenure, not the asking price. Those are two separate constraints and both of them bite. The valuation sets the number the advance is calculated on, and because a trading park is valued as a going concern that number reflects what the park earns rather than what it would cost to rebuild. The tenure sets the outside limit on the term, as set out in the Crown land section above.
What the loan actually follows
A contract price is evidence of what one buyer agreed to pay. It is not the basis of the advance. Where a valuation lands below the price, the shortfall is cash, and on a park that gap can be larger than buyers expect because the earnings basis and the price expectation do not always agree. The specific bands, deposits and structures for this asset class are published on the caravan park finance page, and that page rather than this one is where the numbers live. How long-stay sites and cabins move the gearing is covered in the park LVR guide.
What if the valuation comes in below the purchase price?
A lower valuation does not automatically change the contract price. It changes the amount the lender is prepared to support against the deal, so the first calculation is the actual loan reduction, not simply the difference between the contract price and the valuation. Then have your solicitor check what the finance condition in your contract actually does, because a lender can approve a smaller facility rather than decline the application and the legal effect depends on the clause you signed.
If the park still stacks up at the lower valuation, the funding discussion can move to a price renegotiation, more cash, acceptable supporting security or a properly structured vendor-finance component where the senior lender permits it. If the valuation has exposed an earnings, approval or tenure problem, funding the gap can turn a due-diligence warning into a larger exposure. The step-by-step shortfall decision is set out in what happens when a valuation comes in under the contract price.
Can the Crown lease itself be security?
In New South Wales, usually yes, and the state gets a say in who the lender is. This is the part of a Crown land park deal that surprises people, because it is one consent further than the one everybody plans for. NSW Crown Lands publishes that to mortgage a Crown land lease you may need the Minister's consent, depending on the lease conditions and the notifications recorded on the Lands Title Register. The initial assessment checks for objections to the mortgage, and the agency states it can refuse the application if the mortgage is not in the Crown's interest.
Then look at what the application asks for. Alongside a certified copy of the proposed mortgage and any related agreements, it requires a current and historical ASIC company extract of the proposed mortgagee. The mortgagee is your lender. So on a Crown land park the state is not only consenting to the transfer of the lease to you, it is separately consenting to the mortgage and looking at the institution behind it.
What gets park deals declined
Rarely the park. Usually the file. A short remaining lease with no assignable options, a registration in arrears or about to expire, a site mix the buyer has misclassified, trading figures that cannot be reconciled to the tax returns, or a structure where the operating entity and the land entity have not been sorted out before the application went in. Each of those is fixable before an application rather than after a decline, which is the argument for doing the reading in the order this guide sets out.
Reads clean
- The full lease with every variation and option, plus written confirmation the options are exercisable and assignable
- A current registration certificate showing the expiry date and the conditions it was granted on
- A current fire safety report from the fire authority with nothing left unactioned
- A planning permit whose approved site numbers and layout match what is on the ground
- Three full trading years split by income line and reconciled to the lodged tax returns
- Every site agreement supplied as a document, not summarised on a rent roll
- The land entity and the operating entity settled before the application is lodged
Stalls
- A lease that cannot be located in full, or options nobody has confirmed are assignable
- A registration expiring inside the settlement window, or arrears on the lease account
- A fire safety report that has lapsed, with a fire authority queue between you and a new one
- More sites trading than the planning permit contemplates, found at the second valuation
- Trading figures that will not reconcile to the returns
- A rent roll standing in for the agreements, with the site regimes unclassified
- A consent to transfer nobody started, and a structure still being decided after lodgement
How long the file takes, and why the finance clause matters
Longer than an ordinary commercial purchase, for structural reasons rather than administrative ones. Three of the things this guide describes each run on somebody else's clock and none of them moves faster because you ask. A going concern valuation cannot begin until the valuer has the trading history, so the valuation starts when the vendor's accountant delivers, not when you instruct. A Crown land transfer runs through a consent decision that sits with the state or the land manager, and the arrears position on the lease account can stall it for reasons that have nothing to do with you. An incomplete registration file is completed on the council's timetable, and a lapsed fire safety report is reissued on the fire authority's.
That is why the contract matters as much as the credit. A buyer who signs with a due diligence period and a finance clause sized for an ordinary commercial property, and then discovers the park sits on a Crown lease with a consent path attached, has bought a deadline they cannot move. Work out which of the four tenure types you are dealing with first, then set the periods, then sign. Have a solicitor experienced in park acquisitions settle those terms, because the order of those three steps is worth more than any rate you will negotiate afterwards.
From our broking, indicative
What we see on park acquisitions we have placed, as at September 2026.
- A park going concern approval on a complete file typically runs several weeks rather than several days, because the valuation is a going concern assessment and the valuer needs the trading history before they can start. Indicative, based on park acquisitions Switchboard has placed, and it varies by lender and by how complete the file is on day one.
- The single most common cause of a park file stalling in our experience is tenure documentation, not credit: a lease that cannot be located in full, options that turn out not to be assignable, or a consent to transfer that nobody started early enough. Indicative, based on deals we have placed, as at September 2026.
- Where a park has a meaningful long-stay component, expect the site agreements themselves to be requested and read, not just summarised on a rent roll. Indicative, based on park acquisitions Switchboard has placed, as at September 2026.
Indicative only, based on park acquisitions Switchboard has placed, as at September 2026. This is not a quote, not an offer, and not an indication of approval. Actual terms and timeframes depend on lender policy, the valuation and your circumstances at the time of application. Not financial advice.
If you are at the point of wanting a number rather than a framework, the park finance page is the route, and the wider security rules for this kind of asset sit under commercial property loans.
What should you ask the vendor for before buying a caravan park?
The source documents, not the summaries. An information memorandum, an occupancy sheet and a profit and loss statement are all descriptions of a park written by somebody selling it. The list below is the paperwork sitting behind those descriptions, and every item on it already exists, so asking costs nothing but the asking. Request all of it at once and early, because several items come from third parties who will take their own time.
Ask for these, in writing, on day one
- Every site agreement, as a document. Not a rent roll and not a summary. Ask for a schedule that states which regime each site sits under, with the underlying agreements attached, so the classification can be checked rather than accepted.
- The current registration certificate. With its expiry date, the conditions it was granted on, and the report from the last inspection showing anything still outstanding.
- The fire safety report from the fire authority. Its date, and evidence that anything it raised has been actioned. It is issued to the park, not written by it, and it has to accompany a registration or renewal application.
- The planning permit or development consent. With the approved site numbers and layout, so they can be compared against what is physically on the ground today.
- The title, or the whole lease. Every variation and every option, plus written confirmation of whether the options are exercisable and whether they are assignable to you.
- On Crown or council land, the consent path. Who the land manager is, what consent a transfer requires, who gives it, how long it has taken on comparable transfers, and the current state of the lease account including any arrears.
- Three full trading years, split by income line. Unpowered, powered, cabins, long-stay and ancillary, each separately, reconciled to the lodged tax returns rather than presented alongside them.
- Anything currently in dispute. Tribunal matters, notices, complaints or unresolved issues involving occupants, the council, the fire authority or the land manager.
- A site-by-site asset ownership schedule. Identify who owns every cabin, movable dwelling, annexe and material improvement, whether it is included in the sale, and whether the park has evidence of that ownership. A structure standing on the land is not automatically an asset the vendor owns.
- The physical-risk and services file. Any known flood, bushfire or coastal constraints, subsidence history, emergency management plan, utility and electricity information, and council or regulator notices that affect the site or its approved use. Ask for the underlying records, not a yes-or-no answer from the agent.
- The PPSR and finance-release information. The vendor entity identifiers, serial numbers for material vehicles or equipment, details of leased or hired plant, and the information your solicitor needs to search registered security interests and obtain releases where required. Keep this separate from the ownership schedule because the PPSR is not an ownership register.
- A settlement-continuity schedule. List every permit, registration, lease consent, resident agreement, employee arrangement, future booking and deposit, supplier or service contract, utility account, embedded-network or energy-selling arrangement and digital asset that needs transfer, novation, notification, a fresh application or a settlement adjustment. Give each item an owner and a deadline.
This is a document request list, not legal advice and not a substitute for a solicitor's due diligence enquiries. A solicitor experienced in park acquisitions should settle the contract terms and review what comes back. What you do with the answers is the subject of the rest of this guide.
On provenance: the documents themselves are the ones named in the legislation and regulator guidance cited through this guide, including the registration and fire safety requirements, the Crown and council lease consent path, and the personal property searches. The order in which to request them is practitioner judgement rather than a rule, and it is offered as that.
The reason the list is worth sending in one email rather than in the order you think of things is sequencing. The fire file, Crown or council consent path, dispute records and physical-risk records can depend on third parties or external records, and they are also the items most likely to change the deal after the buyer has already spent money on valuation and advice. Discovering at week five that the fire report has lapsed, the approved plan does not match the trading layout, or a key cabin is resident-owned is a different problem from knowing it in week one. The documents a lender will want on top of these are set out in the accommodation acquisition document pack.
What has to transfer before the caravan park can keep trading after settlement?
Settlement transfers the assets the contract says it transfers; it does not prove every operating permission, consent, account or commercial arrangement is purchaser-ready. Build a day-one continuity schedule before settlement that separates what follows the land from what needs a transfer, consent, notification, novation, fresh application or new account.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Operating item | What to verify before settlement | Why it matters on day one |
|---|---|---|
| Council permit or registration | Whether the purchaser takes over the existing approval, must notify the authority or must make a fresh application, and whether current conditions or outstanding defects remain open. | You need the purchaser entity to be able to operate lawfully in the form actually trading. |
| Private, Crown or council lease | The transfer or change-of-control consent, option position and any separate consent required for the lender's security. | A completed sale without the required tenure consent does not solve the underlying lease or security issue. |
| Planning approval and site plan | What approval remains attached to the land, whether operator details need updating, and whether the trading layout still matches the approved use. | The buyer needs the business it is paying for to match the authorised use of the land. |
| Resident and site agreements | Which agreements continue, what notices are required and which obligations the purchaser assumes. | Protected occupancy arrangements can shape the income and the buyer's freedom to repurpose sites after settlement. |
| Embedded electricity network | If the park owns or operates an embedded network or on-sells electricity, identify the current network and retail exemption position and what the change of operator requires. | The AER specifically includes caravan parks in the embedded-network framework; electricity on-selling is an operating compliance file, not just a utility bill. |
| Employees | Which employees are offered ongoing employment and how service, leave, redundancy or other entitlements are treated under the transfer arrangements. | The treatment can change the settlement adjustment and the staffing cost the buyer carries from day one. |
| Future bookings and deposits | Who has received the deposits, who must honour the accommodation, and how the liability is adjusted at settlement. | The seller can hold cash for stays the purchaser is expected to deliver after settlement. |
| Supplier, merchant and digital arrangements | Which contracts can be assigned or novated, which need new accounts, and who controls the booking platform, merchant facility, phone numbers, domains and key operating logins. | A park can legally settle and still have avoidable trading disruption if the operating accounts are not purchaser-ready. |
Brisbane City Council gives a useful concrete example of why this checklist exists: a purchaser taking over an existing caravan park must apply to take over the existing permit, and Council says the purchaser cannot make changes to the business until the transfer is finalised. That is a Brisbane rule, not a national rule, but it proves the broader due-diligence point. Check the actual state, council, land manager and contract for the park you are buying rather than assuming settlement itself transfers the operating file.
Sources: Brisbane City Council, Caravan park permits, read 20 September 2026; Australian Energy Regulator, Embedded networks customers and Network exemptions, read 20 September 2026; and Fair Work Ombudsman, Employee entitlements on a transfer of business, read 20 September 2026. Each source governs its own issue; the table is a purchaser-side continuity checklist, not a claim that every item transfers in the same way nationally.The lender-facing documents for the same transition are organised in the accommodation acquisition lender document pack.
What costs and liabilities sit outside the caravan park purchase price?
The cash required to buy a caravan park can be higher than the deposit plus the balance of the price. Before signing, model the tax treatment, settlement adjustments, staff and booking liabilities, professional costs, immediate compliance or maintenance work and the working capital needed to trade after settlement. A deal that services comfortably at the purchase price can still be undercapitalised on day one.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Item | What can move the cash requirement | Usually led by |
|---|---|---|
| GST treatment | Do not assume the words "going concern" make the sale GST-free. The ATO conditions include written agreement, purchaser GST registration, supplying all things necessary for continued operation and the seller carrying on the business until supply. | Accountant and solicitor |
| Duty, rates, land tax and other settlement adjustments | The amount and treatment depend on the jurisdiction, asset allocation and contract. Model them before the equity contribution is treated as the whole cash requirement. | Solicitor or conveyancer with accountant input |
| Stock and consumables | Stock on hand may be included, excluded or adjusted after a count under the contract. | Accountant and solicitor |
| Employees | Transfer-of-business rules can require service recognition or payout/adjustment treatment for particular entitlements depending on the circumstances. | Employment adviser, solicitor and accountant |
| Future bookings, deposits and resident balances | The seller may hold cash for obligations the purchaser must perform after settlement, so the contract needs a clear adjustment method. | Solicitor and accountant |
| Immediate compliance and deferred maintenance | Fire, planning, utility, access, cabin or amenity work discovered in due diligence can become cash outflow soon after settlement even if the purchase price does not move. | Buyer and technical advisers, with valuer/lender input where material |
| Working capital | Wages, utilities, insurance, repairs and the low season still have to be funded after settlement, including where forward-booking deposits were received by the vendor. | Buyer, accountant and lender |
For GST, the important point is to verify the treatment rather than repeat the agent's description. The ATO says a GST-free sale of a going concern requires all of its stated conditions to be met. For employee entitlements, Fair Work's transfer-of-business guidance also shows why the adjustment cannot be guessed from one universal rule. Build both into the settlement model before deciding how much cash is genuinely available for the purchase price itself.
Sources: Australian Taxation Office, Selling a business as a going concern, read 20 September 2026; and Fair Work Ombudsman, Employee entitlements on a transfer of business, read 20 September 2026. Duty, rates, land tax and contract adjustments are jurisdiction- and transaction-specific and are deliberately not reduced to one national number here.Once the real cash requirement is known, the caravan park finance page is the place for the lending structure rather than treating every non-price cost as part of the loan amount.
What if you are buying a caravan, or a cabin in a park, rather than the park itself?
That is a different transaction and this guide does not cover it. Buying a van, or buying a cabin or dwelling that sits on a site inside somebody else's park, is not the same as acquiring the park. The rules are different, the documents are different, and what you end up owning is different: in the park purchase you are acquiring land or a lease plus a business, while in the other you are acquiring a dwelling and a right to occupy a site that somebody else controls.
Anyone in that position should take their own legal advice on the site agreement before signing anything, because the agreement, rather than the sale contract, is what determines what they can do with the dwelling and for how long. The one point that overlaps with this guide is whether a cabin on a site is part of the land or a separate asset, and that question is worked through in park cabins, chattel or fixture.
Where to go next, by where you are in the deal
- You have not made an offer yetSend the vendor document list above, classify the tenure and the site schedule, then use the caravan-park purchase process for the order from offer to settlement.
- You are already under contractThe clock is running on documents produced by other people. Start the accommodation lender document pack immediately rather than waiting for the valuation.
- You are close to going unconditionalRe-check which finance, valuation, legal, accounting, permit and consent items are still protected by a live condition. Have your solicitor confirm the effect of the actual clause before any deadline passes.
- You are preparing settlementBuild the day-one continuity schedule so permits, lease consents, staff, bookings, energy arrangements, suppliers and operating accounts are purchaser-ready rather than discovered after completion.
- You are working out the real cash requiredUse the cash and liabilities checklist before treating the equity contribution to the price as the whole funding requirement.
- The valuation came in under the priceCalculate the actual loan reduction, check the contract with your solicitor, then work the funding and price questions separately. Use the valuation shortfall guide.
- It is on a private, Crown or council leaseThe remaining term, options and third-party consent path set the outside boundary before credit policy does. Start with freehold going concern compared with leasehold and the Crown section above.
- It has a large long-stay or resident-owned componentSeparate the income from the security. Go to how long-stay sites and cabins move a park's LVR.
- The vendor cannot produce the source documentsDo not let a rent roll, agent summary or verbal assurance become a substitute for the underlying agreement, approval or lease. Keep the item open in due diligence and have your solicitor decide what the contract needs before you go unconditional.
- A bank has already said noWork out whether the problem was credit, structure, tenure, valuation or an incomplete file before changing lenders. What changes after a decline, and what does not.
General information only. Which route applies depends on the particular park, its contract, tenure, approvals and valuation, and none of these is an indication of approval.
Before you buy a caravan park, identify the asset, prove the earnings and map the handover before you price the deal. That means the land or lease, the legal regime on every site, the approvals and current registration or licence, who owns the cabins and equipment, whether personal property is encumbered, the maintainable earnings, the physical-risk file, what must transfer at settlement and what cash sits outside the purchase price. Registration cycles are not national: Victoria runs on a three year cycle while Western Australia requires annual licence renewal. Crown or private lease tenure can cap the loan term, resident-owned structures can change the security, unverified earnings can change the valuation, and a permit or consent still sitting in somebody else's name can become a day-one operating problem. Read the source documents before the valuation and before the contract clock becomes the problem. The park finance page carries the lending detail once the asset, cash requirement and file are clear.
Key takeaway: tenure, site agreements, approvals, PPSR and asset ownership, maintainable earnings, physical risk, contract protection, settlement continuity and working capital all belong in due diligence before price and finance are treated as settled.Frequently asked questions
Check the tenure, every site agreement, approved site count and layout, current registration or licence, asset ownership and PPSR position, maintainable earnings, physical-risk file, what must transfer at settlement and the conditions protecting you before you go unconditional. Those checks tell you what rights and liabilities continue after settlement, whether the park is operating as approved, what the going-concern valuer can support, what the lender can fund and how much cash the acquisition really needs.
Know whether valuation, finance approval, legal and accounting due diligence, lease or Crown consent, permit or registration transfer and any transaction-specific approval are either resolved or genuinely protected by the contract. A check completed after a condition expires can still identify a problem, but what you can then do depends on the wording you signed and the law applying to the transaction. Have your solicitor settle and interpret the conditions before the deadlines pass.
Reconcile the same revenue through independent records rather than relying on the information memorandum or one profit and loss statement. Compare tax returns, BAS, profit and loss records, banked receipts and booking-system totals, then test permanent-site income against the site agreements and receipts. Review add-backs, owner wages, repairs and deferred capital expenditure to decide whether the reported profit is maintainable for a new owner rather than simply historically reported.
Use both an ownership schedule and PPSR searches because they answer different questions. The vendor should identify the cabins, vehicles, trailers, plant and other assets included in the sale and provide evidence of ownership. The PPSR records registered security interests in personal property and is not an ownership register; land, buildings and fixtures are generally outside the PPSR. Have your solicitor decide the appropriate seller and serial-number searches and the releases required before settlement.
Build a day-one continuity schedule for the current permit or registration, lease or Crown consent, planning and operator records, resident agreements, embedded-electricity arrangements, employees, future bookings and deposits, supplier contracts, utilities, merchant facilities and key digital accounts. Some items follow the land, while others can require consent, notification, novation, transfer or a fresh application. The exact path is jurisdiction- and contract-specific, so do not assume settlement itself makes every operating file purchaser-ready.
Model more than the deposit and balance of the price. Depending on the transaction, cash can also be required for GST treatment, duty and settlement adjustments, stock, employee adjustments, future-booking or deposit liabilities, professional costs, immediate compliance or deferred-maintenance work and working capital after settlement. A GST-free going-concern treatment is not automatic; the ATO conditions have to be satisfied. Duty and other property adjustments are jurisdiction-specific.
The source documents rather than the summaries. Ask for every site agreement as a document rather than a rent roll, with a schedule stating which regime each site sits under; the current registration certificate or licence with its expiry date and the conditions it was granted on; the last inspection report; the current fire safety report and evidence that anything it raised has been actioned; the planning permit with its approved site numbers and layout so it can be compared against what is physically on the ground; and the title, or the whole lease with every variation and option plus written confirmation that the options are assignable to you. Where the land is Crown or council land, add the identity of the land manager, the consent path for a transfer and the state of the lease account. Ask for three trading years split by income line and reconciled to the lodged tax returns, an asset schedule identifying what the vendor actually owns, and anything currently in dispute. The full list is set out in what to ask the vendor for.
A sale does not let a buyer simply reset protected occupancy arrangements. In New South Wales, section 49 of the Holiday Parks (Long-term Casual Occupation) Act 2002 prohibits contracting out, so a contract of sale or site agreement cannot annul, vary or exclude that statutory position. Any ability to end a particular occupancy comes from the law governing that site and differs by state and agreement type. If a feasibility depends on clearing or re-mixing long-stay sites, have the specific agreements reviewed before you price that plan.
In Queensland, a short-term moveable-dwelling tenancy is 42 days or less with a signed short tenancy statement, and it may be extended once for a further term of up to 42 days. If it is extended again, it becomes a long-term tenancy by law. The Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 covers caravans, caravan sites, houseboats and rented manufactured homes but not holiday lettings, while an owner-occupied manufactured home falls under the Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Act 2003.
It depends on the state, so do not use one national answer. In Victoria a caravan park must be registered with the local council and the verified cycle for this guide is three years. In Western Australia every caravan park must be licensed by its local government and the licence is renewed annually. For a buyer, ask for the current approval itself, its expiry date, its conditions and the last inspection record rather than accepting a simple statement that the park is registered.
Yes, but the tenure and consent path are different from freehold. In New South Wales, Crown Lands says a purchaser of a lease buys the improvements on the leased land and the right to lease the land from the state, and a transfer can require ministerial consent. A Crown lease can also be mortgaged in New South Wales, but ministerial consent may be required for the mortgage depending on the lease and title notifications. Other states administer Crown land separately, so the exact lease and land manager have to be checked before finance terms are treated as settled.
The lender looks first at the going-concern valuation and tenure, then at the quality of the trading evidence, the tourist versus long-stay mix, the site agreements, what structures the park actually owns and whether the operating file is complete. The asking price does not set the advance. A lease term can cap the loan term, resident-owned dwellings can sit outside the security, and unverified earnings can reduce the value a valuer is prepared to support. The specific gearing bands live on the caravan park finance page.
A lower valuation does not automatically change the contract price. It reduces the lender-supported amount, so calculate the actual loan reduction first and have your solicitor check how the finance condition in your contract responds. If the deal still stacks up, the options can include renegotiating the price, adding cash or acceptable supporting security, or a properly structured vendor-finance component where the senior lender permits it. If the lower value reflects an earnings, approval or tenure problem, reconsider whether the gap is a funding problem or a price problem. The decision path is covered in the valuation shortfall guide.
Longer than an ordinary commercial purchase, for structural reasons rather than administrative ones. A going concern valuation cannot begin until the valuer has the trading history, a Crown or council land transfer runs through a consent decision that sits with the land manager rather than the vendor, and an incomplete registration file or a lapsed fire safety report is completed on the council's or the fire authority's timetable. On park acquisitions Switchboard has placed, approval on a complete file typically runs several weeks rather than several days; that is indicative only as at September 2026, it varies by lender and by how complete the file is on day one, and it is not an indication of approval. Work out which tenure type you are dealing with before you agree the due diligence and finance periods, and have a solicitor settle the contract before you sign. The detail is set out in how long the file takes.
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