Motorhome Hire Vs Ownership

Purchase Cost

The cost of motorhomes has risen exponentially since COVID, prices are approximately 50% higher in 2025 than they were 5 years ago. Whilst this is great if you had bought one prior to the price increases – you will have probably made money on it – this is not so great news if you are currently looking to enter in to the world of ownership. An entry-level motorhome is now in the region of £60,000.00, a midrange £80,000.00, and if you want to go for a higher spec or premium brand, then you will be north of £100,000.00. So the first thing to say is that a motorhome is a big investment.  If you are looking to buy, then we would recommend hiring a few different layouts of Motorhomes prior to committing. When we first started out, what we thought worked for us on paper was very different when it came to the practicalities of living in one.

Finance costs

Given the purchase costs of motorhomes now, it will only be the minority of people that can afford to purchase a motorhome outright. Borrowing is also not as cheap as it used to be so if you were to finance your purchase there is a cost involved in this.

Depreciation

One good thing about motorhomes is that they are not like cars, the rate of depreciation is a lot slower. We would estimate average depreciation is going to be in the region of 6-10% per annum dependent on brand & specification.

Insurance/Road Tax

Just like everything over the last few years, the cost of insurance has risen dramatically. Depending on age, vehicle, location, etc, you can budget at least £600-£1000 per annum to insure your motorhome.  Road tax for PLG vehicles is currently £345.00 per annum

Kitting out the Motorhome

When you buy your new motorhome, you will also have to buy all the kit to go in it. While this is a one-off cost, by the time you have bought all your utensils and cookware, TV(s), gas cylinders, levelling ramps, thermal screens, outdoor furniture, etc., you can quickly run up another £600+ just on your starter kit.

Servicing

There are 2 types of servicing involved in motorhome ownership – base vehicle servicing & habitation servicing. To minimise depreciation, you are going to want to keep a dealer service history up to date on your motorhome. Expect to pay £250.00 for a minor and £450+ for a major (every other year). On top of this, you’ll need to have an annual habitation service costing in the region of £200.00, you will need this to keep the manufacturer’s warranty intact, but even if your warranty has expired, we would still recommend getting the motorhome checked annually as this will show up any issues so as they can be dealt with before they become a big problem.  Having a complete service history will also minimise the depreciation of your motorhome.

Storage

If you have room to keep the motorhome on your drive, then that’s one less thing to worry about, however if you don’t then expect to be paying around £50/month for outdoor storage and £100/month for indoor storage dependent on your location.

Maintenance and Repairs

As with all vehicles, motorhomes are going to need maintenance & repair. Most modern motorhomes are built with weight saving in mind. People often say that they are ‘poorly built’ compared to older motorhomes. The difference now is that a lot of older motorhomes were built on heavier chassis, the furniture and all components were heavier, and they may have weighed in at about 4.5tons. Your average modern motorhome will be built on a 3.5t chassis, and to achieve that, manufacturers are now using lightweight panels, hinges, fastenings, etc. Couple this with the state of our road’s and these things do literally rattle themselves apart.  The advantage of this though is that modern motorhomes and far more fuel efficient – you can reasonably expect 30mpg from a modern motorhome driven carefully. From a base vehicle point of view, you will need to budget for tyres, brakes and general maintenance over and above your standard servicing.

The Workings

Example A – Spending £70k on a new or nearly new motorhome with 50% paid upfront and 50% on finance over 5 years @ 8% here are your annual costs.  We have averaged the depreciation out over 5 years based on the diminishing value of the motorhome:

If you were to keep your £35,000.00 in a high interest savings account over the same period you could potentially earn £1933.00 per annum interest (based on 5% savings rate) over the same 5 year period.

This brings the total cost of ownership to £10,862.00 per annum or a whopping £54,310.00 over a 5 year period and this is before you’ve been on holiday!

Example B – If we were to take the same motorhome @ 5 years old, with the same £35,000 deposit.  Approximate value of this motorhome would be £46,000.00 @ 5 years old, so you would need to borrow £11,000

+ Potential interest earned on £35,000 in saving account @ 5% = £1933.00

Overall cost would be £8231.00 per annum or £41,155.00 over 5 years.

Motorhome Hire

To put this in perspective, £10,862.00 per year, spent on hiring a motorhome is going to buy you nearly 70 nights in hire charges. We have based this on an average price of £160.00 per night. This will probably be cheaper during the ‘off’ season and more expensive during the high season, but this budget is going to get you a good, new or nearly new motorhome rental.

There are several other advantages to hiring a motorhome:

• The motorhome you rent will always be new/nearly new. At Unleashed Motorhome Hire, we replace our vehicles every season/18months at the maximum.
• You can choose a different layout depending on the time of year, nature of your trip, number of people travelling, etc.
• You can take your pets with you – all our motorhomes are pet friendly!
• You don’t have to worry about if something were to go wrong with the motorhome
• You don’t have to worry about maintaining the motorhome
• You don’t have to worry about storing the motorhome
• You don’t have to worry about kitting out the motorhome
• You don’t need to pay Insurance & Tax
• You don’t have to worry about selling the motorhome

For most people, hiring a motorhome is going to work out far cheaper than the cost of ownership.

However, if it’s something you’re going to jump in most weekends and want the convenience of it being setup to your liking, or if you spend extended periods of time travelling in it then it is definitely worth the cost of ownership.

We hope that this article was informative and if you are ultimately looking to purchase, then why not try hiring a few different layouts first to see what works practically for you. At Unleashed motorhome hire we have 11 different models / layout’s for you to try before you buy, or maybe to decide that ownership is/isn’t for you.

Book your motorhome rental here