Two Weeks at a Time: The Case Against Buying a Motorhome (Sorry)

Let's get the confession out of the way first: we rent motorhomes for a living, so you might assume we'd say hiring wins. But we've also spent enough evenings in campsite conversations with owners doing quiet arithmetic on napkins to know this isn't just a sales pitch. The maths genuinely favours hiring for most UK holidaymakers — and 2025 has only sharpened the point.

What Ownership Actually Costs

Start with the sticker price. A decent new two-berth sits around £55,000–£70,000; something family-sized with a fixed bed and a proper washroom can clear £80,000 without breaking a sweat. Even a well-kept five-year-old van will set you back £35,000 or more.

Then the running costs, which owners know by heart:

• Depreciation. The killer. A new motorhome can shed 15–20% of its value in the first couple of years. On a £60,000 van, that's up to £12,000 evaporating before you've had many weekends away.
• Storage. Unless you've got a driveway the size of a tennis court, secure storage runs £800–£1,800 a year depending on where you live.
• Insurance. £300–£600 annually for most owners, more for higher-value vans.
• Maintenance and habitation checks. Servicing, tyres that age on the calendar rather than the mileage, damp repairs if you're unlucky. Budget £500–£1,000 a year and hope.

Add it up, and even a modest year of ownership — one where the van mostly sits — costs somewhere north of £3,500. A heavier-usage year with a newer van? Easily £6,000–£8,000 once depreciation is counted honestly.

What the Same Money Buys in Hire Fees

Now flip it. Peak-season weekly hire on a modern, well-equipped motorhome typically runs £900–£1,400. Two peak weeks and a shoulder-season long weekend — a generous year of holidays by most people's standards — comes to roughly £2,500–£3,500 all in.

In other words: you could take three proper motorhome holidays a year, in a van that's newer and better-equipped than most people own, and still spend less than the cost of a depreciating asset sleeping in a storage compound eleven months of the year.

The Counter-Argument, Fairly Stated

Ownership isn't madness for everyone. If you're on the road twenty-plus weeks a year, live somewhere with space to park, enjoy tinkering, and plan to keep a van for a decade or more, the sums start working. Full-timers and frequent snowbirds aside, though, that's a small minority of buyers.

There's also the flexibility argument in hiring's favour that rarely gets mentioned: the right van for the trip. Couples don't need a six-berth. Families of five don't fit comfortably in a compact two-berth. Hiring means sizing the vehicle to the holiday rather than the other way round.

The Open Road, On Your Terms

Here's what we actually believe: the motorhome lifestyle was never really about the van. It's about waking up by the sea, kettle on, no airport in sight. That experience is fully available to you at £1,100 a week — minus the deposit drama, the damp worry, and the awkward conversation about selling up in eight years' time.

Buy the van if the numbers and the lifestyle genuinely stack up for you. But if your holidays are measured in weeks rather than months, renting isn't the consolation prize. It's the sensible choice dressed up as the easy one.