Buying a manufactured home

Before making a decision to reside in a residential park, consider:  

• whether the park offers the facilities you need, such as transport, on-site shop, and recreation and social facilities
• whether you prefer to live in:  
  • a purpose-built manufactured home park
  • a combined park that contains a mix of manufactured homes, caravans and holiday cabins
  • a tourist park with some permanent caravan tenants and holiday cabins, and has both rented and owner-occupied manufactured homes
  • another form of accommodation that may suit your needs.
• whether a communal living scheme is suitable for you
• what site rent and other fees you will be required to pay to the park owner under the proposed site agreement 
• how and when the site rent can increase
• how and when your site agreement could be terminated
• how long the park owner intends to use the land for residential purposes
• what the value of the home is on its own - bearing in mind that the Act permits the park owner to terminate site agreements in certain circumstances
• the options available to you if you choose to move your structure, as there may be limited sites available in another suitable park.

Disclosure documents

Under the Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Act 2003, the park owner/manager must supply prospective home owners with disclosure documents for the park including:

• Manufactured Homes Form 1 - Home owners' information document (PDF, 282 KB)
• a copy of the park rules and any outstanding proposals to change the park rules.

See home owners' information document.
See park rules.

To compare residential parks, particularly review the following parts of the information document:

• Part 2 - Specific information (residential park details and facilities details)
• Part 3 - Dispute resolution process
• Part 4 - Additional information.

Site agreements

When you decide which residential park you will live in, the park owner or manager should then give you two copies of the proposed site agreement which may be the Manufactured Homes Form 2 - Residential Park Site Agreement.

Before signing an agreement, you should ask an independent legal adviser or financial adviser to check the site agreement and any purchase agreement for clarification. You should also seek legal advice to make sure you understand your rights and responsibilities under the proposed site agreement and the Act.

Fair Trading cannot provide legal or financial advice.

See site agreements.