The first real decision most families face is not which resort. It is whether to buy a pre-loved park model or a new one. Pre-loved seasonal cottages start at $64,900 plus HST and new ones at $149,900. Here is what that difference actually buys you, and where the trade-offs sit.
Pre-loved gets you onto a resort for less than half the price, already sited and usually furnished, with a shorter financing term. New gets you a warranty, current build standards, a lot you help choose, and twenty years to pay for it.
Neither is the right answer for everyone. The useful question is which set of compromises suits your family.
This is the part people miss. Pre-loved park models are sold where they stand, with the buyer taking over the site. You are not choosing a cottage and then choosing where to put it. The two come as a pair.
That cuts both ways. A cottage in great condition on a lot you do not love is a compromise, and so is a perfect lot with a layout that does not work for your family. It also means availability drives everything: at any moment there might be four cottages for sale across a resort, and your decision is made from those four.
The upside is real though. 233 Monument Street at Vine Ridge is a 2015 Northlander Spruce, three bedrooms, 480 square feet, at $64,900 plus HST. That is a family onto a resort in Niagara wine country for less than the deposit on most freehold cottages.
Buying a new seasonal cottage at one of the Bloom resorts works the other way round. You pick the model, you pick from the lots available, and the cottage is built and delivered.
The Lakeshore is $149,900 plus HST for three bedrooms in 480 square feet, made by Northlander. The Ferrensby, Fonthill and Belvedere are $189,900 each, built by General Coach, running from 467 to 540 square feet with different layouts. The Fonthill puts the lounge at the front; the Belvedere adds a half bathroom.
Two things to budget for that are not in the sticker price. Decking and steps are quoted separately on a new park model, and they are not optional. And there is a wait between ordering and using it, which matters if you are hoping for this season rather than next.
Take two three bedroom park models, both 480 square feet, at the same resort group.
233 Monument Street, a 2015 Northlander Spruce, is $64,900 plus HST. The Lakeshore, brand new, is $149,900 plus HST. Same bedroom count, same footprint, eleven years apart.
The $85,000 difference buys a warranty, current build standards, a lot you had a say in, and a cottage nobody else has used. Whether that is worth it depends less on the money than on how long you plan to keep it and how much you mind a cottage that has had a life before yours.
More than the price does, and this is the part that surprises people. Financing on new cottages at the Bloom resorts runs over twenty years from 6.99% OAC, with a deposit of 20 per cent of the price including HST. Pre-loved park models at Vine Ridge are usually financed over ten years.
So the gap in weekly payments is narrower than the gap in price. A longer term on a larger sum can land closer to a shorter term on a smaller one than the headline figures suggest. Ask for both numbers before you decide, because the monthly cost is what you will actually live with.
Approval and rate depend on credit, deposit and term, so treat any figure as illustrative until you have an approval.
The annual site fee. It runs from about $4,305 at Hay Bay to $8,695 at Vine Ridge depending on the resort and the lot, and it is the number that governs your ongoing cost, whichever cottage you buy. The buyers guide sets all eight resorts out side by side.
So does the depreciation point. A seasonal cottage is bought to be used, not as an investment, and that is true of a new park model as much as a pre-loved one. If anything, new depreciates faster in the first few years, in the way a car does.
Pre-loved tends to suit families testing whether resort life is for them, buyers who want the lowest way in, and anyone who would rather spend the difference on using the place than owning a newer one.
New tends to suit families who are confident this is a long stay, who want a specific layout, or who care about choosing the lot. It also suits anyone who would rather have a warranty than a bargain.
If you are genuinely unsure, look at both on the same day. Book a Discovery Visit and we will walk you through a pre-loved cottage and a new model back to back, with the fees and finance numbers for each written down. Seeing them an hour apart settles it for most people faster than any amount of reading.
You can also browse everything available now, pre-loved and new together.