Across Australia, caravan parks, tourist holiday parks, and regional accommodation hubs sit directly at the heart of our outdoor lifestyle and regional economies. They are the backbone of domestic tourism, home to long-term residents, and the primary destination for millions of grey nomads and holiday-making families every year.

Yet behind the scenes, caravan park owners and operators are navigating an unprecedented operational storm. While operational costs soar, park operators are being quietly squeezed by a double-barreled market failure: skyrocketing insurance costs with arbitrary asset exclusions, paired with a sharp downturn in discretionary family travel that leaves parks sitting at a painful 5% off-peak occupancy.

At COA Housing Charity Ltd, we step in to turn this crisis around. Acting as an institutional Gatekeeper, we use our collective umbrella scale to unlock bespoke insurance program facilities, master underwriter pathways, and insulated portfolio pricing—while helping park owners convert empty sites into guaranteed cash flow by hosting emergency housing caravans and relocatable pods.

Commercial caravan park operators face a unique combination of physical, legal, and financial pressures that traditional domestic and retail insurance markets simply fail to understand:

Caravan park operators across Australia are seeing annual property, business interruption, and public liability premiums jump by 100% to 300% year-on-year. Insurance has surpassed labour and energy as the largest single operational expense for many independent operators. Worse yet, underwriters attach extreme excesses—$10,000 for storm damage, $20,000 for fallen trees, or $50,000 for bushfires—forcing park owners to pay for moderate repairs out of pocket.

Standard commercial insurers routinely enforce a rigid "15-year age rule." Once accommodation cabins or legacy park units reach 15 years of age, underwriters often demand costly structural certifications, slap severe exclusions on the structures, or deny property cover outright.

Essential family attractions—including water parks, swimming pools, jumping pillows, and pedal karts—face blanket exclusions or unviable liability terms. Furthermore, parks operating in coastal strips, riverbanks, or North of the 26th Parallel (Northern QLD, NT, and WA) face flat "no-quote" responses for cyclone, storm surge, and flood exposures.

Let's drop the sugarcoating and look at the brutal economic numbers facing Australian caravan park owners today.

Australia currently ranks among the most expensive countries on earth to live in. Between relentless interest rate pressures, skyrocketing grocery bills, and fuel prices hovering at record highs, the average Australian family has been forced to make a hard choice: they are simply stopping discretionary domestic travel.

The impact on regional tourism is devastating. Iconic, beautifully maintained regional caravan parks across NSW and Queensland—parks with millions of dollars in infrastructure—are sitting at a painful 5% occupancy during off-peak weeks.

When holidaymakers aren't pulling through the gates, site fees dry up. But your fixed overheads don't stop:

• Public liability and property insurance premiums keep rising.
• Council rates, land taxes, and utility bills keep arriving.
• Park maintenance, power, and groundskeeping costs remain fixed.

If your park relies 100% on holidaymakers who can no longer afford to tow their vans down the highway, you are running a high-risk business in a crushed consumer market.

While tourism travel has slowed to a trickle, another crisis in regional Australia is exploding: the regional housing and key-worker shortage.

Every regional council across Australia is desperate for immediate, dignified housing for displaced families, essential key workers, nurses, teachers, and council staff. Through state initiatives such as the NSW Reconstruction Authority & Homes NSW Homes Reuse Program, state governments have thousands of relocatable emergency housing pods, modular units, and commercial relief caravans sitting ready for immediate deployment.

The roadblock? Councils don't have the pre-serviced land or off-grid infrastructure ready to land them.

The solution? Your caravan park.

COA Housing Charity Ltd (t/a Club & Operators Alliance) actively bridges the gap between state government housing assets, regional councils, and struggling caravan parks:

1. Acquiring State Housing Assets & Emergency Caravans: COA submits master applications under government procurement frameworks to acquire relocatable emergency pods, modular homes, and dedicated emergency housing caravans directly from state assets and commercial fleet partners.
2. Instant Deployment onto Empty Park Sites: Instead of leaving 80% of your powered sites sitting vacant waiting for grey nomads who aren't coming, COA partners with your park to land emergency housing caravans and pods directly onto your underutilized pads.
3. Bypassing Council DA Red Tape: Because caravan parks already hold statutory approvals for moveable dwellings and relocatable structures, siting emergency caravans and pods requires zero multi-year Council Development Applications (DAs). They can be landed, hooked up, and occupied in days.
4. Guaranteed Government & Institutional Rent: Instead of betting your survival on volatile weekend tourists, your park receives guaranteed, long-term weekly site rental revenue paid directly through government housing programs, COA Charity facilities, or local key-worker employers.

Rather than buying an off-the-shelf retail policy alone, COA members gain access to master program facilities arranged through specialist brokers and underwritten by APRA-regulated security and A+ rated global syndicates (including Lloyd's of London).

Crucially, each member park purchases and holds its own independent policy underwritten in its own business name. COA provides the umbrella scale, accredited gatekeeper facility, and risk management framework that unlocks the terms:

• Caravan & Holiday Park Master Cover: Custom-tailored pathways for full-scale regional parks, campgrounds, and multi-facility holiday destinations. Includes public liability ($20M+ limits), property cover, asset alignment, and business interruption.
• Purpose-Built Lodging & Legacy Cabin Cover: Tailored facility structures designed to address aging asset challenges, securing real-world property protections for legacy structures, cabins, and park amenities past the 15-year mark.
• Wet & High-Risk Amenity Coverage: Specialized options helping operators secure coverage for water park exposures, dam/river access, swimming pools, jumping pillows, and hired recreational equipment.
• Master Insurance & Risk Shield for Emergency Housing (COA Insure): Every emergency caravan or housing pod landed under the COA framework comes fully backed by COA's APRA-regulated master group insurance facilities, protecting your park from public liability, property damage, and compliance headaches.

Caravan park operators often ask: Why is a registered housing charity stepping in to help solve commercial caravan park insurance and property risks?

Our foundational mandate is built on two inseparable pillars: Sanctuary and Mobility.

"There is no point in providing a person or family with safe housing (Sanctuary) if they do not have the capacity, skills, or transport frameworks to travel, explore, and access regional Australia safely (Mobility)."

Housing dignity and regional mobility are two sides of the same coin. To fulfill this dual mission, COA Housing Charity Ltd operates through two core divisions:

• Conservation and Occupiers Authority: Delivering housing sanctuary, crisis accommodation pathways, land stewardship, and emergency regional shelter frameworks.
• Club & Operators Association (COA): Serving as an accredited non-profit Gatekeeper that pools industry scale and raw member numbers to open access to master insurance program facilities.

• Insulated Portfolio Scale: Your business leverages the collective volume of our broader national network (including landowners, farmstays, and regional entities), shielding your business from broader commercial insurance market swings.
• Complete Operational Autonomy: Maintain 100% control over your park operations, booking systems, night rates, and site rules without corporate or platform interference.
• Community Impact & Reinvested Surplus: Surplus application levies do not feed corporate bottom lines—they are reinvested directly into COA Housing Charity Ltd to fund modular, off-grid emergency housing and crisis caravans for displaced regional families and workers.

You shouldn't have to choose between exorbitant insurance premiums and leaving your life's work dangerously exposed, nor should you let 80% of your powered sites sit empty during off-peak months.

Whether you run an independent boutique holiday park, a large-scale regional resort, or a mixed-use residential campsite, COA provides the institutional scale, master insurance pathways, and emergency housing partnerships you need to thrive.

Turn your empty dirt into guaranteed revenue and secure your property assets today.

👉 CLICK HERE TO JOIN NOW: Become a COA Program Member

COA Housing Charity Ltd

Reclaiming Regional Yield. Protecting Australian Parks.

📞 Direct Phone: 0475 703 970

✉️ Executive Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

🌐 Web: coa.au