Van Parks Targeted by Developers

They’ve been coming to the Agnes Water Caravan Park for 25 years . . . families, friends, grey nomads, young couples. They park up their vans, stroll a few metres to the magnificent beach, and settle in to enjoy carefree days and weeks of affordable sun, sand and surf. Some, who first came as children back in the early ’80s, have been coming back ever since, many now with a young family of their own.

But they won’t be coming back any more. Soon, the park will have taken its last booking, the last caravanners will have hooked up their vans for the last time, there’ll be no more beach-loving kids washing sand off in the well-worn ablution blocks, and there’ll be no more happy hour beers and laughs under the awnings.

Instead, builders will be at work constructing the Sansara luxury apartments for those lucky enough to be able to afford them. It’s a scene that is being played out up and down the coast.

From a business perspective it makes sense for all concerned – developers want to build on the land and park owners are choosing to sell if the price is right. But when the dust settles and the parks are gone, will it still seem to have been such a good idea or are we meekly allowing a valuable part of our cultural heritage slip away? Is the great Aussie tradition of a camping holiday next to one of our gorgeous beaches really under threat?

The executive director of the Caravan Parks Association of Queensland, Ron Chapman, thinks so and he’s pretty upset about it. "Of course, it’s a serious situation," he says. "We think it’s grave when one park closes but in Queensland alone 20 parks are now under immediate threat and six are facing imminent closure.

"The bottom line is that land values have gone up dramatically in the past few years and this has translated into extra costs for the park operators and many are struggling to stay viable. It’s no wonder that some find it difficult to resist when developers come knocking on their door. This situation should never have been allowed to happen in the first place."

Mr Chapman points to the position in Victoria a year or two back when parks were closing at an alarming rate. He says the state government there responded by effectively abolishing land tax for caravan parks, helping to make many of them a viable proposition again.

Each state has a different position on land tax as it relates to caravan parks and, in Queensland, park owners are only exempt from land tax if more than 50 per cent of their park is set aside for permanent residents. That doesn’t help many of them.

"Everything started to change here about three years ago," says Mr Chapman. "Caravan parks which had always been designated for special purposes in terms of land tax and rates were suddenly charged for the value of the land as if something like a luxury apartment block was put on it. It was a huge burden. I know of one park where rates went up 600 per cent. Of course, parks are going to close in an environment like that."

While more than 20 caravan parks in Queensland are under immediate threat of closure, the Caravan Parks Association of Queensland knows of no plans for any new ones to open up.

It’s a similar situation further south in New South Wales. Barry Baillie is the chief executive officer of the NSW Caravan and Camping Industry Association and he acknowledges that in the past three or four years, some 50 parks have been sold for a variety of reasons.

"You have to remember that we have 950 parks in New South Wales, so it hasn’t really been an avalanche," he says. "But it certainly is an issue. In that time you really haven’t seen hardly any new parks arrive. The land is so expensive it just isn’t viable.

"At the end of the day we represent our members and if, at some stage down the track, they want to consider selling their parks for superannuation or whatever, who are we to say they shouldn’t? I know I would be tempted. Some of these parks are worth between $3 million and $20 million. That’s a lot of money. If the planning laws allow them to do it, why wouldn’t they?"

While land tax has become a key cost consideration for caravan park owners - one that can have an impact on overall profitability - it is pretty clear that it is the developers waving a huge cheque that is the real reason that some owners decide to sell. Developers are business people. They see prime undeveloped land in an outstanding location that could make a far better return if units or apartments were built on it.

For their part, struggling park owners often see million-dollar plus offers as a way of ensuring their financial security into retirement years. It’s a recipe for caravan park closures.

The Agnes Water land on which the Sansara apartments are being built had been owned by the Jefferys family long before they decided to establish a caravan park on it 25 years ago.

Tom Jeffery, now the town’s mayor, was a part-owner and worked hard to establish the park as a profitable business. "We started off small and gradually built it up," he says. "At first land tax was just another little bill that you just paid and didn’t worry about too much but then it really began to bite.

"There were the rates, as well, and at the end of the day you have to look at your returns and look at the return you would get if your land was put to another use and make a business decision.

"Although our park was actually still profitable when we sold you could see there were rising costs and, looking into the future, it was pretty clear that it might not be profitable forever.

"It was a very, very difficult decision to sell. Obviously the land has a lot of sentimental value as it had been in the family for a long time and because we had worked hard to build the park up. Then there were families that had been coming here for many years. It was a tradition for them and one that sadly has had to come to an end. We had to think long and hard but, ultimately, you really do have to make a business decision."

And so another beachfront park closes its doors. There are no plans for a new park to take its place. All this at the same time that the grey nomads are spearheading an unprecedented growth in the popularity of caravanning in this country.

On a brighter note, at least some of our beachfront caravan parks seem safe - for a time at least. While many privately run absolute beachfront caravan parks are bowing to the pressure of cashed-up developers, there are still a sizeable number of parks that are on land that is government owned and council run. These are, in theory, at least, safe from the developers’ rapacious appetites.

In New South Wales, one third of caravan parks are on crown land and the situation is similar in other states. Reassuring as that may be, it does not tackle the root causes of the caravan park closure problem. While those involved in the caravanning industry and tourism authorities continue to lobby all levels of government to do what they can to safeguard the coastal caravan parks and the important part of the Aussie way of life they represent, resorts are still being built and parks are still closing down. And once they are shut down they are going to stay shut down.

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