Oliver good luck with your dream. I hope it works out.

FWIW

Fantasy, is always better than reality, and without dreams and fantasy we would be much poorer.

Fact, the UK weather is very poor and can severely limit the amount of flying one can do.

Fact, UK planning laws, coupled with the general attitude to anything entrepreneurial in the UK, is filled with doom.

Fact, if I wanted an Air Park home, it would be where the weather is CAVOK, 365 days of the year - ARIZONA/some parts of SOCAL.

Fact, NIMBYS can ruin your day, and there are a lot of them in the UK, backed by fried and envious Councillors.

Fact, I do not think the wealth, in numbers, exist in the UK, to make a viable commercial venture. Who would fund this BTW? Those with wealth, fly off to Cannes, and join up with the boat.

Aeroplane's are for going places. Why would it make any sense, to fork out 750K, on an Air Park home in the UK, when all we want is some sun and heat, which we can travel to in our aeroplane's?

I am with Sam, and I have looked, and at one stage nearly found it. Country house with field, for my own private strip. I dream on however.

it annoys me that Woodford (EGCD) hasn't been grabbed as an "air park". There are enough affluent aviators already in Prestbury, Bramhall and other like places to make it an interesting possibility. The standard "to close to Manch argument is bollox. We coped with gliding up to 1,000 ft Woodford AGL without dramas and AVRO test flights.

I think the key word is not "can't" but "won't".

We have a few starting to pop up down under and we have the weather to go with it...that and a couple I've seen so far are in gorgeous coastal spots that are already holiday spots....maybe aim to retire a BIT further south?

@GBZ....First consider how many of those affluent flyers would want to flog their prestige mansion and move
Then, how many would risk buying a place that has very limited appeal
I make the sweeping assumption that Ringway's "spotter's Corner" isn't full of Rolls- Roycas, Ferraris and the like.

Then , as previously mentioned, the potential Rates-income of the whole site.

Find enough Aviators prepared to pay ,maybe £30,000 a year rates, for the comvenience of the facility, you may get the local council onside.

It's "back of a fag-packet maths" doesn't work in UK...too many people,too few sites that are not more financially viable as Airpark than housing or industry.

As I said, the way forward is to get a consortium to buy an existing airfield and the surrounding NIMBY 's properties.
Now THAT would be a winner for UK GA.:) dream on!

The aforementioned dissertation can be found here.

My view is that the problem with airparks is that most people with the money actually want to live somewhere nice, not next to a busy runway. So the location does matter, and UK's planning regs don't make it easy.

I think most US airparks are exclusive communities, where you can't just turn up. There was one near where I did my FAA IR in Arizona, called Stellar Airpark, and it was absolutely prohibited to go anywhere near it, without an invitation.

airfield next to airpark for sale
 

There is an airfield, with a planning permission for a build, and with a ready built airpark adjoining, for sale in SW France...

well....

put a link to it!

Gated communities are also far more common there than here and the same would apply to those. Turn up without an invite and you won't get in.

To be fair, the whole social thing is different in the US. The UK has a block of retirement apartments, the US has whole towns of retirement condos. OK, maybe an exaggeration but maybe you follow my thinking.