A woman sitting on the bed of a Vagabond Haven house, photographing the forest through a full-width window.
Financing

An entire house, for the price of a few years’ rent.

A Sunshine, fully furnished and built for living in all year, costs 41 500 €. In Munich that sum is a little over two years’ rent on a flat you would never own, and it would not cover the deposit to buy one. Here it buys a house that is yours to keep, move or sell.

And you do not have to pay even that at once: borrow part of it, or rent it out and earn an extra income while the house pays for itself.

We have sold more than 250 houses and seen how people pay for them. The cheapest way to borrow may surprise you. Find out below!

100 to 1 600 €/monthdepending on which house and which loan
6 concrete routesfrom a mortgage top-up to a business lease
5 easy stepsfrom this page to keys in your hand
Start here

A place to live, or a house that earns?

That question, and whether you buy as yourself or through a business, decides everything below. As a private buyer you borrow, against your income or against the home you already own, and the house is yours from the day it arrives. As a business you can lease instead. Then your guests pay for the house, not you. On the nightly rates and occupancy our own rental operators work with, a house earns more than twice its monthly lease payment, whichever model you pick. The second tab works it out on your own numbers.

Change it if you have a quote.

Best route for you

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0 € per month, over 0 years

Borrowing money costs money. This is a worked example built from a published rate for your country, at the amount and term shown, named under the figure above. It is not an offer and not a quote. Your own rate, term and fees depend on the lender's assessment of your situation, and the lender decides. Figures are in euro and exclude fees the lender may charge; your lender will quote in your own currency.

Where you can put it

These are national rules as we last checked them. Municipalities add their own, and nothing here is legal advice.

What each route costs

Six ways people pay for these houses

Which ones are open to you depends on one thing above all: whether the house you choose stays movable or becomes part of the land. That is not a detail, it decides whether a bank can take the house as security, and therefore what it costs you to borrow.

RouteWhat it isMobile, on wheelsSemi-mobile, steel frameModular, on a foundation
More on the mortgage you already have Your own bank lends against the home you already own. Usually the cheapest money you will ever be offered, and the house you buy from us is simply what you spend it on. Published average home loan rates across our markets run from 2.8 to 5.3 per cent. WorksWorksWorks, and cheapest
A mortgage on the house itself Only where the house becomes part of land you own, is permitted as a dwelling and can be entered in the land register. Longest terms, lowest rates, most paperwork. Priced like any other mortgage, so the same 2.8 to 5.3 per cent, against a deposit of ten to twenty per cent. ClosedSometimes, mixed loanOpen
A loan with no security A specialist lender lends against your income rather than against property. Some assign part of your salary or take ownership of the house as cover instead of a charge on land. 3.8 per cent at the best we found, in Finland, to 11.6 per cent at the worst, in Portugal. Best fitBest fitAvailable, but costs more
Leisure vehicle finance The same lending caravans and motorhomes use, secured on the registration document. Long terms, and it only exists if the house is road-registered. 5.5 to 9 per cent on lenders’ own representative examples, and terms to fifteen years. The cheapest published deals want about twenty per cent down. If registered as a trailerToo heavyClosed
Business lease The lessor owns the house, you pay monthly and buy it at the end for a set amount. Business customers only, and the unit has to stay relocatable. 6 to 9 per cent, over five to seven years, with about ten per cent at the start and ten per cent at the end to own it. OpenBest fitOnly if demountable
Instalments at the point of sale Credit arranged as part of the purchase. Useful for a deposit or for options and extras. The ceiling is the problem rather than the rate: typically 10 000 € over 36 months, well below the price of a whole house. Part of the price onlyPart of the price onlyPart of the price only

One thing worth knowing before you fall in love with a model: the rules that reward a house for being permanent are not the rules that reward it for being movable. A house bolted to a foundation can carry a mortgage and, in some countries, qualify for state support. A house that can be lifted and moved can be leased, financed as a vehicle and taken with you. We will tell you which side of that line each model sits on before you order, not after.

A Vagabond Haven house standing on its own in a meadow, with forest and hills behind it.
What happens next

From here to keys, in five steps

Price your house

Put your house together in the price calculators, then ask us for the documents. We need the model, roughly where it goes, and whether you own that ground.

We send what your lender needs

A written quote, the specification, the weight and dimensions certificate, the permit position for your municipality and the document list your lender works from. One email, nothing for you to chase.

You apply to the lender

You borrow from the lender, not from us, so the credit agreement is between you and them. We are not paid to steer you towards one lender over another.

We start the build

About three months for a custom build, two to four weeks from stock. Payments usually run 30 per cent when you sign, 50 per cent part way through the build and 20 per cent before delivery, or half and half on a ready-built house. We can adjust that schedule if you need us to, and whatever we agree is written into your contract.

Delivery

We deliver to your plot, connect the house and do the final check on site. The warranty runs five years from there.

A finished house with a timber deck, standing on a cleared plot with lavender in the foreground.
Financing FAQ

What our customers usually ask

Do you lend the money yourselves?
No. You borrow from a bank or a leasing company that is licensed and supervised to lend, which gets you two things we could not give you: the consumer protections that come with a regulated credit agreement, and a rate set by an institution that borrows money more cheaply than we ever could. We build houses and we would rather be good at that.
Why can I not just get a mortgage on it?
A mortgage is a charge on land. A house on wheels or on a steel frame is not land, so there is nothing for the charge to attach to. That is why specialist lenders take a different kind of security instead, such as ownership of the house itself or part of your salary. If the model you want sits on a foundation on land you own and is permitted as a dwelling, then a normal mortgage often is possible.
I already have a mortgage. Is borrowing more on it really cheaper?
Usually, yes, by a wide margin, because the bank already holds security it trusts. The catch is that the amount you can add is capped against the value of your home, the cap has been tightened recently in some countries, and some banks will want the work described as an improvement to your property rather than as buying a separate house. Ask your own bank first, then get one comparison offer.
Can I lease one as a private person?
In most of the countries we sell in, no. Leasing and hire purchase for this kind of asset are offered to businesses, because a private lease with a purchase option is regulated as consumer credit and few lessors set that up. If you are buying through a company, it is often the best route available.
Does it help if the house is road-registered?
It opens a route that is otherwise closed, which is not the same as the best route. Registered as a trailer, the house can use caravan and motorhome finance, fifteen years in some countries with the house itself as security, and one insurance policy for the whole EU. This is the trade above in its sharpest form: movable buys you finance and leasing, permanent buys you a mortgage and, in some countries, state support. So if you already own property, borrowing more on that is still cheaper. Only the mobile range can be registered, because it has to fit the legal envelope for a trailer.
What do you get out of arranging this?
Houses sell when people can afford them, which is the whole of our interest. No lender pays us anything today. If that ever changes we will say so on this page, in plain words and next to the route it applies to, and it will not change what we recommend to you.
The monthly figure looks too good. What is missing?
Look at the total you repay, not the monthly figure. A longer term always makes the month look smaller and the total larger, and a bigger house over fifteen years can cost less per month than a smaller one over seven while costing far more in the end. Both numbers are in the box above, deliberately next to each other.
Talk to us

Send us the model and the plot. We will send everything your lender asks for.

One email back with the quote, the permit position and the document list. No obligation, and no credit application until you decide to make one.

We use this to answer you, by email or on the phone, and to work out which routes apply where the house will stand. We do not ask what you earn, nothing here is a credit application, and we do not pass your details to a lender unless you ask us to. How we handle your data.

Or write to us directly: info@vagabondhaven.com