Features

The unprecedented boom occurring in the leisure vehicle market at present is quite possibly a once in a lifetime event for the industry. But the huge uptick in interest, sales and growth has not come without problems – it wouldn’t be business if it was all easy right? Coronavirus may have helped drive the growth of the market in recent months, but it has also contributed to one of the biggest issues the industry is facing at the same time: supply.

The surge in demand is struggling to be met and new units simply cannot be built fast enough – add to that the fact that there have been some major raw material supply issues in this last 18 months and you have a recipe for a market full of very keen but very frustrated consumers. Enter the used market. With campers and new campers eager to own a leisure vehicle at almost any costs, the sales of second-hand caravans, motorhomes and other camping vehicles has gone through the roof in the last year.

The German market is more often than not the one we use as a barometer for the general health of the global RV industry (certainly from a European perspective) and this has shown just how strong the used market is right now. The German Federal Motor Transport Authority reports that 101,765 leisure vehicles were bought and sold as second-hand units in the first seven months of 2021 alone – a 1.4 per cent increase on the same period from 2020. This figure can be split as 54,482 motorhomes changing hands since January 2021, while 47,283 caravans changed owners in the same time period.

But this exceptional growth of the used leisure vehicle market while impressive, is still not at its full potential according to Daniel Onggowinarso, managing director of the German caravanning industry association CIVD. He believes that the hype around caravanning as a hobby means many people who would normally sell their vehicles are choosing not to do so: “The fact that even more leisure vehicles did not change hands was due to an insufficient supply. In view of the special safety and suitability of the holiday form in the Corona pandemic coupled with the supply difficulties for new vehicles, the vast majority of owners do not want to hand over their vehicles at the moment, but use them themselves ­– despite high resale values.”

A global trend

This trend is not unique to Germany. In the USA, a 2020 year-end review on RV market insights by leading consumer insights and data provider J.D. Power revealed used motorhome values steadily increased in the country over that year. Class C used motorhome prices were particularly strong in the data, showing a steady increase throughout the year, while camping trailers and caravans also saw similar strong price retention.

In the UK too, used leisure vehicle sales have hit new heights, with summer 2020’s sales figures for used units up around 65 per cent compared to normal years.

The used market has also been boosted in Australia, with an estimated one in 13 households in the country now owning a caravan or motorhome – figures that simply could not have been reached through the sales of new units alone.