One Doc Home Loan for Caravan Park Owners
Caravan Park One Doc Home Loan | Switchboard Finance
Property Lending
One Doc · Caravan Park · Self-Employed
One Doc Home Loan for Caravan Park Owners
If you run the park, the business is your income, and a stack of payslips is the wrong test. A One Doc home loan reads the strength of the going concern instead. Here is what a lender actually looks at, and where it lands.
Quick Answer
A One Doc home loan lets a self-employed caravan park owner borrow off the business rather than full personal returns. The lender reads the freehold going concern and an accountant declaration, then sizes the loan from there.
Why a caravan park owner reaches for One Doc
A One Doc home loan exists because the income test that suits a salaried buyer does not suit an owner-operator. When you run a caravan park, your money comes out of the business, gets reshaped by depreciation, owner add-backs and reinvestment, and rarely looks like a tidy payslip on paper. A One Doc structure verifies that income from business evidence and an accountant declaration instead of two years of full personal returns, which is why it tends to fit the self-employed business owner far better than a standard application.
It is not a shortcut around proof. It is a different proof. The typical fit is a park owner who is profitable and bankable but whose latest personal returns lag the real trading position, often because earnings were ploughed back into cabins, amenities or sites. Specialist and non-bank funders built the One Doc lane precisely for that gap, and the same One Doc logic carries straight across from a motel to a park.
What the lender actually reads
What lenders actually look at first is the trading performance of the park, not a wage figure. The assessment runs off an adjusted net profit, an indicative occupancy pattern across the year, and how durable that income looks once one-off items are stripped out. Site and cabin revenue, an accountant-signed position and a clean set of books carry the application; a messy or unreconciled set of accounts is what stalls it.
The security side leans on the going concern, which means the park is valued as one whole, land plus trading business plus goodwill, rather than as a bare block of dirt. That single valuation base is also why a freehold position usually reads more strongly than a tightly tenured or leasehold one, and it is the same frame a buyer meets when purchasing a caravan park. The income read and the security read move together. For background on how the trading numbers behind a park are framed, the Australian Taxation Office sets out what counts as assessable business income.
Line these up before you apply
What stalls a file instead: income that only appears once add-backs are assumed rather than shown, gaps between the books and the accountant letter, short or uncertain tenure on the land, revenue concentrated in a single peak, or unexplained drawings and related-party flows.
How much you can borrow, and the deposit
Borrowing capacity on a One Doc caravan park loan is set by two ceilings working together: the loan to value the lender will accept against the going concern, and whether the assessed income comfortably covers servicing on the loan you want. One Doc LVRs typically sit more conservatively than a full-doc residential loan, indicative and varies by lender, which usually means a larger equity contribution because the lender is leaning on lighter income paperwork.
That is not a penalty so much as a balance. The lighter the income verification, the more the deal rests on the asset and your equity in it. If the numbers are tight, a broker can weigh a One Doc submission against a fuller package, caravan park finance on commercial terms, or a commercial property loan structured around the park, and against where commercial rates sit in 2026. If you would rather get a quick read on where you stand before preparing a full file, you can check your eligibility first.
Where One Doc fits the bigger picture
A One Doc home loan is one tool inside the accommodation lane, not the whole toolkit. It sits alongside buying, refinancing and equity release as a way for an owner-operator to access credit when the business, not a salary, is the engine. For the full map of how the different paths connect across pubs, motels and parks, the Accommodation Finance hub is the place to orient, and the pub and hotel finance page covers the licensed-venue side.
The deals that move quickest are the ones where the story on paper matches the story in the books. Get the accountant declaration, the trading accounts and the going concern lined up before you apply, and the One Doc path does what it is built to do. For owners thinking about ownership change rather than a straight purchase, the management rights structure is a useful adjacent read.
A One Doc home loan lets a self-employed caravan park owner borrow off the strength of the freehold going concern and an accountant declaration, rather than full personal returns that often lag the real trading position. The lender reads adjusted net profit and occupancy on the income side, and values the park as one whole on the security side. The two move together, and a conservative LVR usually means a larger equity contribution.
Key takeaway: line up the accountant declaration, clean trading accounts and the going concern valuation before you apply, and the One Doc path does its job.Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, a self-employed caravan park owner can often access a One Doc home loan, because the structure is built to read business strength rather than payslips. Lenders lean on an accountant declaration, trading evidence and the freehold going concern instead of two years of full personal returns. Specialist and non-bank funders tend to be the natural home for this, and policy varies by lender.
Lenders read caravan park income off the trading performance of the park rather than a wage, usually working from an adjusted net profit and how stable occupancy looks across the year. They want clean accounts, documented site and cabin revenue, and an income picture that holds up once one-off items are stripped out. The going concern then anchors how much can be advanced.
Deposit on a One Doc caravan park loan is driven by the loan to value the lender will accept, which is typically more conservative than a standard residential loan and varies by asset class and tenure. As a guide the equity contribution is often larger than a full-doc deal because the lender is leaning on lighter income paperwork. The going concern valuation and your LVR ceiling set the real number.
The going concern is central to a One Doc caravan park loan, because the park is valued and lent against as one whole: land, trading business and goodwill together. A freehold going concern usually supports a stronger position than a leasehold or a tightly tenured site. This is the same valuation base that sits behind buying a park, so the income read and the security read move together.
A One Doc home loan often carries a margin over a comparable full-doc loan, because the lender is pricing for the lighter income verification, and the exact cost varies by lender and deal. The trade is speed and access when full personal returns are not practical, against a rate that is usually a step up from a vanilla home loan. A broker can weigh whether the One Doc path or a full submission serves you better.
FBAA Accredited
