SBA 7(a) RV Park Feasibility Study

RV parks in 7(a): larger loans, no recorded losses

RV park and campground owners took 645 SBA 7(a) loans and $842.8 million from FY2017 to FY2026. Their median loan, $821,000, runs above the class median across both programs, though not by our distinctness margin, and the middle half spans $314,900 to $1.8 million: these are mostly acquisitions of operating parks, with land, utilities and the business in one loan.

SBA's file shows a clean loss record: 0.00% charged off among the 274 park loans disbursed in FY2017 to FY2021, a figure that is also 0.00% at the five-year mark. Cancellation lies between 13.5% and 14.1%. For a lender, that is an asset class where funded loans have held up; for a borrower, it is a reason lenders tend to take these deals seriously, provided the park's income is documented across a full year.

Lenders and states

Live Oak Banking Company leads with 57 loans and $143.5 million. The Huntington National Bank has 22 loans for $30.9 million, Ameris Bank 20 for $18.7 million, Citizens Bank 17 for $28.2 million and Bank Five Nine 16 for $22.7 million. Texas leads the states with 85 loans, then New York with 35, Michigan with 31, Florida with 28 and Utah with 27. Volume peaked at 103 loans and $117.6 million in FY2021, and dollars stayed near that level in FY2023, at $114.7 million, and FY2025, at $116.3 million; FY2026 brought 60 loans and $92.3 million. Franchise share is 8.4%, the branded campground systems.

What a park acquisition study has to test

RV parks, RV resorts and campgrounds share one industry code, so the study has to define the property before it values it. A feasibility study for a 7(a) park loan has to test occupancy by month across a full year, the mix of nightly, seasonal and long-term sites, and drive-time demand; the cost of deferred maintenance on utilities, septic or sewer, and roads; debt service coverage in the weakest months as well as on the annual average; and an appraisal that rests on the park's operating income and comparable park sales, with any long-term residents examined for their effect on value. Seasonal parks and year-round parks belong in different underwriting files, even when the code puts them together.