The market for mobile homes

We introduce how the mobile home market works, the key market processes, and what to pay attention to before purchasing, so you can make an informed and safe decision.

Changes In The Image Of Mobile Homes

The image conveyed by the media/movies did not represent reality, since mobile homes were always associated with the poor, marginalised masses, those who were excluded from health care and a quality life.

But in the last 20-25 years, mobile homes have increasingly come to represent households that want a sense of freedom, those that demand greater freedom of choice and want to develop their lives. As a result, the market for traditional mobile homes has expanded dramatically, and so has their supply.

One only has to look at the world’s most expensive mobile home solutions, such as the 100 sqm “The Heat”, used by Will Smith and Ashton Kutcher, or the even more expensive mobile home on the San Clemente beach in California, which is worth 2.5 million USD and offers incredible luxury for its inhabitants over almost 140 sqm.

But, of course, while keeping with the traditional trend, a mobile home is just as capable of providing a good quality of life for its owners for as little as 12-25,00 USD. The manufacturers have met expectations and have now reached the stage where there is no difference in quality of living between a professionally built mobile home and a traditionally built apartment or house. Yet very few people in the ex-communist region know this today, as most of the solvent demand has not been “educated” about this subject, they have to hunt down this information on their own.

Expert discussions on the mobile home market

 

Listen to our experts’ analyses of how the market works, its risks, and the opportunities it offers.

Significant Growth In The Market For Mobile Homes

To understand why the mobile home market has made such progress, the answer is quite simple: it has advantages over traditional housing that people value highly. One of these is reliability, not only in terms of the specific conditions set in stone and their clear “full guarantee”, but also in terms of the clearly predictable timeframe for completion and move-in. Unfortunately, this criterion can very rarely be applied with the same certainty to traditional housing, either because it is new or because it needs renovation, but the time and date of completion of the planned work and the quality of the work often entail a high degree of risk. The other important reason is that there is indeed a huge diversification in the portfolio, and a very wide range of functionality.

The global economic crisis of 2008 and the recent pandemic, which triggered a new, larger-scale crisis, made people look beyond traditional solutions. As a result, although the initial interest was often “forced”, they are now very happy mobile home owners. Because, although it may seem idealistic, it is a telling and significant difference from traditional homeowners, that the vast majority of mobile home owners, if they bought their home from the right professional level of dealer, are content! As a result, the demand for mobile homes began to grow dramatically in the 2010s, accelerating further in the 2020s as material prices increased and reliable builders lacked capacity, resulting in a significantly wider range of uses for mobile homes:

  • housing,
  • tourism/accommodation (even in extreme locations),
  • holiday homes, weekend houses,
  • separate living quarters for family members,
  • dedicated workspace.

However, mobile homes purchased for residential purposes—as products in themselves—would start at a disadvantage compared to a conventional house in certain respects due to a lack of high-quality expertise: most mobile homes are not properly insulated, were originally designed for non-residential use, and require specialised expertise to be properly transported by road and installed. As a result, the initial price sensitivity of the market has been superseded in recent years by the need for value for money, where buyers expect a high level of expertise, experience, and service.