The short version: in a leasehold park — the overwhelming majority of this market — you own the manufactured home itself but pay pad rent to lease the land it sits on, whether that land belongs to Westbank First Nation, the Okanagan Indian Band (Duck Lake Indian Reserve No. 7), or a private/corporate landholder. In a freehold community, you own the land outright, the same as a detached house. Pinewoods Villa on Lenz Road in West Kelowna is the clearest freehold example in our directory.
What leasehold actually involves
Leasehold is the default in this market — 42 of the 43 parks we track work this way. The park operator (or, on reserve land, whoever holds the headlease) owns the land; you own the home and pay monthly pad rent for the right to keep it there. That arrangement comes with real, ongoing obligations: pad rent that can increase (capped and regulated on BC-jurisdiction land, less clearly regulated elsewhere — see our pad rent rules guide), park rules you don't get to negotiate individually, and a requirement to get the park operator's consent before you can sell, since selling means assigning your site tenancy to the buyer.
None of that makes leasehold a bad option — it's simply a different, generally less expensive way into this market, and plenty of leasehold parks have decades remaining on stable, long-term headleases. See our guide to redevelopment and closure risk for how to actually evaluate the security of a specific leasehold situation.
What freehold actually involves
At Pinewoods Villa, owners hold title to their own parcel of land, with an HOA (not a strata corporation) handling shared costs like road maintenance for a modest monthly fee — currently around $85/month. There's no pad rent, no landlord, and no lease expiry to think about decades down the road. Selling works the way it would for a typical house — no park-operator consent process standing between you and a buyer.
Why this changes financing
Freehold land generally qualifies for a conventional real property mortgage. Leasehold homes are usually financed with a chattel loan instead — covering the home as personal property, not the land — which typically means a shorter term and a higher interest rate, and on reserve land specifically, often a much smaller pool of willing lenders. See our full financing guide for the details.
How to think about the tradeoff
Freehold is more secure and easier to finance, but it's also rare in this market, which limits your choice of location, price point, and community. A long-term, well-run leasehold park — especially one with a headlease running many decades out and a stable pad rent history — can be a perfectly sound purchase. The honest comparison isn't "freehold good, leasehold bad," it's understanding exactly what you're taking on with a specific park before you commit, which is why we document lease terms, pad rent, and land status park by park in our full directory rather than treating "leasehold" as one uniform category.
This page provides general information only and is not legal, financial, or tax advice. Please confirm current details with a lawyer, notary, or mortgage professional before relying on this page.