Q&A with Jon Patrick and Ian Collier, Managing Director of Tingdene Group

This is a transcript of the interview which ties in with our Business Outlook 2025 report. 

Jon: Hello. My name is Jon Patrick, and I'm responsible for Christie & Co's Leisure and Development business around the UK. I'm delighted to be joined today by Ian Collier, Managing Director of Tingdene Group, a long-established family business that operates and develops in the holiday park, residential park, and marina sectors. 

Ian, welcome. It's great that you can join us today. We're really looking forward to you sharing some of your insights into the businesses that you operate within. 

Looking at trends across those sectors, we’ve recently published our Business Outlook 2025 report, and it’s interesting because we've published this now in Christie & Co's 90th year. We’d love to hear some of your views in terms of major activity and any trends you saw happening throughout 2024, as well as how you think they might unfold in 2025. 

Ian: 2024 was a challenging year for all sectors that we operate in. We noticed a bit of a downturn in the residential sector and the holiday sector, towards the back end of 2023. Coming into 2024 we were hopeful that that wouldn't continue, and things would improve. 

The delay in the interest rate cuts not coming as early as we all anticipated, and then the call of the election, meant there wasn't much activity in those two sectors until probably August. 

When that came, it was very short-lived because shortly after the election, we had the announcement of the Budget, and it just seemed like everybody went into lockdown mode until the outcome of that. For the marina sector - we operate marinas, inland marinas - the back end of 2023 and into 2024 was challenging. 

A lot of the rivers were on red boards, so boat owners and potential boat owners who were looking to acquire boats were not able to use those boats or do trials on new boats or brokerage boats because the boards were in flood. That delayed the marina sector and the boat sale and brokerage market. 

I think we got going just after Easter when the rivers came off the red boards, and things did start to pick up a little bit. But I think it's fair to say across all three sectors, it all comes down to more affordable options that people were considering. 

New boat sales, new caravan sales, new lodge sales, or even new park home sales, literally fell through the floor. So, we’re seeing more of a drive towards second-hand boats, second-hand caravans, and residential park homes as well. 

Jon: Another thing we are conscious of, in all these sectors, is that in a lot of instances they are family and generational businesses, and in a lot of cases we’re seeing people who sometimes have not got a succession plan. Unlike in the past, kids have grown up, gone to university, moved away from home, and haven't returned to the mothership. Are you finding that a particular trend across the whole of the industry, where a lot of the sales are being driven by a lack of succession planning? 

Ian: Definitely, yes. We’ve been in these sectors now for 25 to 30 years, and historically, yes certainly the residential more than the holiday parks, and the inland marinas. The inland marinas and the residential sector is still seen as a bit like a cottage industry. 

You’ve got to remember, there aren't that many residential parks in the marketplace. There aren't that many marinas across the whole of the UK in the grand scheme of things. The majority of these sites or operations are generally single operators, certainly on the residential side. 

For some reason, the younger generation doesn't see residential caravan parks and, to some extent, inland marinas as “sexy”. Therefore, they’re not interested in following in their parents’ footsteps.  

Jon: We're always saying, you need to prepare as much as possible in advance of coming to market. It takes just as long preparing as it does the actual marketing process. I don’t know whether, with the businesses you see, if you see a lack of preparation with vendors or whether they get good advice and come to market with a well-thought-out and defined strategy? 

Ian: We’ve built up relationships with a number of operators and family-owned businesses over the years. When the opportunity comes, they approach us, saying they’re looking to sell. We often find that it’s probably a bit of a knee-jerk reaction. Whilst that's good for us from an acquisitions point of view, it can be very painful. I can list numerous cases where we’ve instructed lawyers and got the ball rolling, only to find several months down the line that they haven’t even got the basics in place. 

It's so important to get all your ducks lined up, especially in this market, where things already take too long as it is.  

Jon: The government have been quite upfront about wanting to improve and increase the number of houses built across the UK to make planning more straightforward and timely. You would think that would be of benefit for the residential park market, particularly when rental values are really high in residential, and we have some of the highest house prices? 

Ian: I would totally agree. I’m probably a little bit sceptical, having had experience dealing with local planning officers.  

We’ve got a case on the go at the moment where we submitted an application over 14 months ago for an extension to an existing residential park for 20 homes. We ticked every single box. All the environmental studies and everything else came back positive, and there’s no reason why it shouldn't be green lighted. We’ve almost been told that, but not officially, by the planning officer, but here we are, 14 months on, without a decision either way. 

Until park homes and residential caravans become more acceptable within the planning policy, it could still take some time for submissions to come good. 

COST PRESSURES 

Jon: As far as the economic climate is concerned Ian, we’ve had some real challenges to go through. That Budget in October last year – what’s been your sense of how the holiday and residential park and marina sectors have dealt with this? 

Ian: It’s still very early days. Especially with the increase in the employer’s National Insurance contributions, and the increase in the Minimum Wage – that hasn’t actually kicked in yet, but we’re all trying to look ahead and prepare for it. 

Certainly, on the holiday parks, where you’ve got bar staff, waitressing staff, and you’ve got quite a large headcount, and that’s going to have a big impact on the profitability of those sites. 

Talking to friends and colleagues in the industry, it seems likely to create a freeze on employment. We’re already seeing people who have lost employees for various reasons and are taking the view not to replace them.  

It was a Budget that we watched closely, and we’re still trying to work our way forward.  

Jon: Is the industry going to be capable of passing on the majority of costs to consumers, or will there need to be an element of absorption? 

Ian: There will have to be an element of absorption. We’ve found that, certainly since the pandemic, holidays are more important to people nowadays than ever. We saw an increase in the number of holidays people were taking after the pandemic, though that has slowly started to come back down again. Rather than people taking three or four short breaks a year, this has dwindled down to maybe one decent break or two or three short breaks.  

We're finding as well that those who are taking those breaks are using their holiday lodge or caravan more as a base. They’re using it to dine and socializing there, whereas historically, those places were seen as a place to put your head down at night while spending the rest of the time out in the local area, enjoying facilities and spending money in bars and restaurants. We're seeing those numbers dwindling because people are choosing to stay in their accommodation and eat in to save costs. 

MARKET LANDSCAPE 

Jon: There doesn’t appear to be a lack of capital available in the industry. There's significant wealth among owners, and a lot of those owners are long-term family businesses. I think we’ll still see quite an active purchasing market.  

Ian: Private equity and venture capitalists have an appetite as well for all the sectors we deal in. That can only be a good sign for strengthening the appetite for the sectors. 

Jon: We definitely saw a marked uptick from the second half of last year from private equity operators. There were a lot of conversations taking place about potential opportunities in the market. That’s when you start looking at opportunities of scale. I suppose we've seen it in the hotel and care home industries – they evolved operations of scale, bigger number of rooms, bigger number of lodges. You get to that level where it’s 150 to 200 units plus, and all of a sudden you’re into a different buyer territory. You get opportunities of 10, 15, 20, or 50 parks. The buyer group is considerably different. 

Ian: The sectors are quite small in terms of the number of residential parks, inland marinas, and marinas overall in the UK and the majority of those are in single ownership. There are tremendous opportunities for people to come in and build up a nice small or large portfolio of sites and become a major player in the sector. 

Jon: How are you finding the banks and the financial community’s interest in backing and supporting new opportunities? 

Ian:  Very strong. We deal with a number of different banks, to keep them on their toes. There’s tremendous appetite to continue doing more, which is great for us. It allows us to continue growing, acquiring more, and building for the future. 

SUSTAINABILITY 

Jon: Another point I'd like to cover, Ian – we’re seeing sustainability and green topics in our living rooms every day of the week. How is the industry coping with that?  

Ian: That is a challenge not only for us but for the whole industry. The majority of our sites are in rural locations, and there’s increased demand put on operators to do the right thing by offering green choices to consumers, with EV charging points for cars and solar panels.  

This comes with challenges. Is the infrastructure on the site up to allowing for car changing points? Many of these sites have been around for decades with very archaic infrastructure. Trying to charge a car up on a site developed in the 1960s or 70s can be somewhat time-consuming, because of the small electricity draw available. 

We’ve found that, on a number of parks, we’ve had to upgrade our infrastructure within the existing park where we already had sufficient supply. This can cost several hundreds of thousands of pounds. On the flip side, we’ve got sites where the incoming supply to the site isn’t up to capacity, so we’ve then had to work with the National Grid and get the supply into the site up to scratch.  

For us then to upgrade our infrastructure and increase supply to the edge of the site can cost many hundreds of thousands of pounds. It is a challenge, and something we are addressing site by site. 

Jon: We’ve had some pretty horrific storm events already this year. We’ve seen on the news that several holiday parks have unfortunately been underwater, displacing people. It’s something like 20% of all holiday and residential parks are at potential risk of a flood event. How is the industry capable of accommodating and looking at change? 

Ian: With existing parks and developments, it’s a case of working with what you’ve got. Over the past few years, we’ve worked very closely with the Environment Agency where we’ve got sites located in areas that could flood. You do risk assessments and put plans in place, and it’s more about then communicating this to caravan owners, making sure they are aware of the risks. 

For new sites, these considerations are part of the planning process when building in at-risk areas. A lot of sites in the industry — whether marinas, holiday parks, or residential parks —are born from the caravan site era which were historically out in open countryside, along rivers, and in areas of natural beauty, which are unfortunately prone to flooding.  

It’s something that we have to work with. There are technologies coming in to be able to lift caravans up out of the floodplain, but that obviously all comes at a cost, as an investment.  

On the flip side, looking at the inland marina sector, we experienced six months on the River Thames where boaters couldn’t use their boats due to river flooding. This has significantly impacted businesses and consumers’ ability to enjoy their holiday home, residential home, or boat. 

Jon: To the technology point, you mentioned about platforms that are raising homes out of floodwaters, but you still can’t physically get to your home – how will that work? Ultimately, cars would have to be driven offsite, but your accommodation at least is spared. 

Ian: Yes, that’s it. It still means the accommodation can’t be used. This is where there is a clear distinction between the residential and holiday sectors. Somebody occupying a holiday home technically should have somewhere else to go to as their main residence. The holiday home that could at times potentially be in flood – they don’t need to necessarily use it, because they can be at home.  

That’s where things have probably got to be come a bit tighter, in terms of how these sites are used. As long as they are used in accordance with how they’ve been designed to be used, then it all comes down to proper management. It’s then working with the likes of the Environment Agency, and the emergency services, to make sure you’ve got all the necessary flood evacuation plans in place, that should that happen then you have a site where you don’t have any occupancy during those times. 

OUTLOOK FOR 2025 

Jon: Do you have a sense at this early stage, Ian, of how you think 2025 is going to evolve? 

Ian: I think in terms of the sale and acquisition of parks, marinas, and similar properties, I think it’s going to be a very strong year. We’ve seen an increase in the number of opportunities coming to the market, for various reasons already discussed. There’s more activity from the private equity sector as well coming into the market. 

Operationally, it’s still very early to say, but we’ve seen an uptick in enquiries on the residential side, which is encouraging. The only downside of the residential side is that we monitor the timeline from registering an enquiry through to completion, and that typically takes at least six months—anything from 28 to 32 weeks on average. Any business we’re doing now, we won’t really see the fruits and the benefits of that until the summer. 

Operationally for holiday parks, marinas, and to a certain extent, residential, it’s carrying on from where we saw 2024 ending. It’s more about affordability. There’s still that drive towards pre-owned homes, lodges and boats, and we see the interest and level of enquiries in that continue to rise. 

It’s all about adapting to the current market. Based on what we’ve experienced in the first few weeks of 2025, I think hopefully, come the summer, we’ll see the benefits of all that. This should allow the second half of the year to be quite lucrative. 

Jon: Well, it sounds like you’ve got all bases covered this year, Ian. Thanks so much for your time, it’s been a pleasure, and we wish you and the Tingdene team all the best for 2025 and beyond.  

Ian: Thank you very much. 

To watch the full video interview, visit:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUfPYAGmVLE