International investors are once again being drawn to the UK holiday park sector, betting that Britain's enduring appetite for domestic holidays can deliver resilient cash flows and long-term real estate value even as wider hospitality markets remain uneven.
The endless summer of 2026 has provided another short-term boost to long term strategies and the latest vote of confidence came in May when European private equity firm Aermont Capital agreed to acquire Park Holidays UK from US-listed real estate investment trust Sun Communities for £768 million, marking one of the largest holiday park transactions in Europe in recent years.
While Aermont is European based, the transaction highlights the growing influence of North American capital in shaping ownership of the UK's leisure real estate. Sun Communities had only owned the business since 2021, when it acquired Park Holidays for £950 million before investing a further £250 million buying freehold interests, taking its total investment beyond £1.2 billion and expanding from 42 to 56 parks.
Although the sale represents a discount to Sun's overall investment, the disposal reflected its strategic decision to simplify the business and concentrate exclusively on manufactured housing and RV communities across North America rather than the UK holiday market.
Indeed, institutional money continues to regard UK holiday parks as infrastructure-like hospitality assets capable of producing dependable income through economic cycles. And that thesis has been reinforced by a succession of increasingly valuable transactions involving some of the world's largest investment managers.
Aermont itself has gradually built a reputation for identifying operational real estate opportunities where active asset management can create substantial value. The firm's previous UK investments include Pinewood Studios, acquired for £323 million in 2016 before benefiting from the explosion in global film and television production.
Blackstone remains the highest-profile backer in the sector. After acquiring Bourne Leisure in a deal worth about £3 billion in 2021, the private equity giant separated the business into its component brands, ultimately selling Butlin's while retaining Haven and Warner Hotels.
Last year Blackstone completed a £2.9 billion refinancing of Haven's 39 holiday parks, with a financing package that implied the business was worth around £3.9 billion, significantly ahead of the valuation attached to the original acquisition.
The debt package itself demonstrated how lenders increasingly view established holiday park portfolios as stable, cash-generative businesses, with the refinancing combining securitised debt with additional senior facilities and capital expenditure funding, providing fresh investment capacity while returning capital to shareholders.
Cove latest portfolio to market
In a smaller deal, Colliers' specialist Parks team has recently been instructed to market 11 UK holiday parks that were formerly part of the Cove group, which employs around 450 staff across sites and achieved a turnover of £41.1 million in 2025. Offers are being sought for either the shares or business and assets.
The portfolio comprises approximately 2,564 developed caravan pitches in total, including 1,707 private holiday homeowner pitches, 454 letting lodges and caravans and 108 residential park home pitches, with the remainder made up of vacant pitches, staff units and touring caravan pitches. In addition, there are a further 484 potential pitches to be developed giving the impressive total of 3,130 pitches.
The largest element of the portfolio is in west Scotland, comprising eight holiday parks and including flagship parks at Hunters Quay, Drimsynie and Loch Lomond, which were acquired in early 2022.
“While the economic headwinds of 2024 and 2025 presented trading challenges for the holiday park sector, the future looks positive. The sustainability of consumer demand for UK holidays is without question,” according to Richard Moss, Head of UK Parks Agency at Colliers.
Center Parcs expands in Scotland
Brookfield has enjoyed similar success with Center Parcs, arguably the UK’s premier holiday village operator. Having acquired the company in 2015 for approximately £2.4 billion, BGRE has spent much of the past three years exploring ways to crystallise its gains.
An attempted sale in 2023 sought a valuation approaching £4 billion but was abandoned as sharply rising interest rates undermined buyers' ability to finance large acquisitions. Rather than exit completely, the Canadian investor is assembling a continuation vehicle backed by UK and international pension funds that will recapitalise the business at a valuation of roughly £4.5 billion, allowing existing investors to realise returns while maintaining exposure to one of Europe's strongest hospitality platforms.
Center Parcs has continued to report occupancy levels regularly exceeding 98% across its UK villages and revenue per available lodge has also continued to rise as consumers demonstrate a willingness to spend more on higher-quality domestic leisure experiences.
Scottish Borders Council has also approved planning permission for a new Center Parcs Scottish Borders village – Center Parcs’ seventh in the UK and Ireland – between Hawick and Selkirk. The year-round family destination will cost around £450 million to construct, having started on site this spring and with the new village set to open in summer 2029.
It will be Center Parcs’ first new village since the opening of Longford Forest in Ireland in 2019 and Colin McKinlay, CEO of Center Parcs said: “Center Parcs Scottish Borders will allow us to reach a new market, attracting families from across Scotland and the north of England who may not have previously considered a Center Parcs break.”
Holiday parks defy expectations
The pandemic undoubtedly accelerated investor interest as international travel restrictions pushed millions of Britons towards domestic holidays. What has surprised many investors is how resilient demand has remained after overseas travel fully reopened.
While international holidays have recovered strongly, domestic leisure has established itself as a complementary rather than substitute market and UK families increasingly split their annual holiday budgets between overseas trips and shorter UK breaks. The scorching summer of 2026 and higher oil prices have also persuaded more families to holiday at home.
Indeed, many institutional buyers increasingly regard them alongside student accommodation, self-storage and single-family housing as operational real estate sectors and demand remains particularly high for parks with more than 150 pitches which offer dependable pitch fee income, according to advisor Christie, as the big continue to get bigger.
However, challenges remain. Consumer confidence is still fragile, operating costs continue to rise and labour shortages persist across hospitality. Nevertheless, recent transactions suggest investors believe those risks are outweighed by the sector's long-term fundamentals.