What a caravan costs to run
About $844 to $1,883 a year, before insurance.
That covers registration, one scheduled service and tyres, for a caravan kept at home.
Each cost line below shows what decides it and where your own figure comes from.
Updated . 9 min read • Buying Guide
Standing bills run about $844 to $1,883 a year for a caravan kept at home, before insurance.
Registration alone runs $71 to $618 depending on your state. Paid storage adds $1,740 to $4,200, and depreciation is usually larger than all of it.
- Standing bills - registration, insurance, servicing, tyres, storage, roadside (charged whether the van moves or not)
- Trip costs - site fees, and the fuel the van adds (these track how far you go and how many nights you stay)
- Depreciation - what the van loses in value while you own it (no invoice ever arrives for it, and on most vans it is the biggest line)
What decides your own figure
Ask what a caravan costs to run and you get an average, and the average is almost never about your van. Your state sets registration and scales it to your van's weight. Insurers quote on your van, your postcode and where it sleeps.
Storage depends on whether it fits at home, site fees depend on where you go and when, and fuel depends on your car, your van and your right foot. Change any one of those and the answer changes with it.
So this guide does the useful thing instead. It names every line, tells you what decides it, and tells you exactly where your own figure comes from. Most of them you can settle in an afternoon, and the number you end up with is yours rather than somebody else's.
What the standing bills come to
For a caravan that lives at home, the bills you can pin to a published figure come to roughly $844 to $1,883 a year, before insurance. The spread is wide because one end of it is a van registered in VIC and serviced cheaply, and the other is a van in ACT on dearer tyres. Both ends are real, and where you live sets more of the difference than what you tow.
Worked at a tare of 2,298kg, which is the middle of the caravans we list. Two states charge registration on weight, so that figure is doing real work rather than decorating the sentence.
| Line | A year |
|---|---|
| RegistrationVIC is the cheapest of the 7 that publish a figure, ACT the dearest | $71 to $618 |
| One scheduled servicesingle axle at the low end, dual axle at the high end, before parts | $690 to $890 |
| Tyres, set of five spread over their life5 tyres at $165 to $375 fitted, lasting 5 to 10 years | $83 to $375 |
| If the van lives at home | $844 to $1,883 |
| Storage, if it cannotopen air at the low end, undercover at the high end, priced on the van's length | add $1,740 to $4,200 |
Registration figures are read off each authority's own published schedule, captured 1 August 2026 and set out state by state in our registration guide. Queensland publishes no towed-caravan figure at all, only a quote tool, so it is not in the spread above. The ACT figure is the one that applies to a registration period starting on or after 1 September 2026, when its light-trailer reduction runs out; a period starting before that date is cheaper, and the registration guide prints both.
One scheduled service: a Queensland dealer's published price list, 24 February 2026. Parts sit on top of every quoted service price, and a wheel alignment is charged separately again.
Tyres, set of five spread over their life: a national tyre retailer's live pricing, in a common caravan size, read 12 August 2026. Caravan tyres are replaced on age as much as on tread, and the spare ages on the same clock as the four doing the work.
The two lines nobody can put a figure on
Insurance is quoted on your van, where it sleeps and how you use it, and there is no published Australian average worth repeating. Two or three quotes on the same van will tell you more than any figure printed here could.
Depreciation has no invoice and no reliable published figure either, and on most vans it is larger than everything in the table put together. That is not a reason to skip it. It is the reason the next section is about how to work it out for your own van rather than how to look it up.
The standing bills
These arrive whether the van leaves the driveway or not, which is what makes them the backbone of the yearly figure. Each one can be quoted or looked up today.
Registration
Every state and territory sets its own caravan registration fee, and most measure it against the van's weight rather than what it is worth. That makes it the easiest line on the whole list to get exactly right: find your van's weight, find your authority's published band, and you have the number for the year.
Insurance
A premium is quoted on the specific van, where it sleeps overnight, how you use it and the payout basis you choose, which is why the only figure worth putting in a budget is one you have been quoted. Get two or three quotes on the same van and read what each one pays rather than what each one charges.
Servicing, and the interval it runs on
A caravan service covers wheel bearings, brakes, suspension, the coupling and a general check over the body and seals. Builders commonly set the first one at 1,000km or three months, whichever comes first, then annually or every 10,000km, and the interval in your own warranty booklet is the one that counts. Book it against a date rather than a feeling, because warranties are frequently conditional on the scheduled services being completed and recorded.
Tyres
Caravan tyres age while the van is parked, which is where a caravan spends most of its life, so they are replaced on date as much as on tread. The date code stamped on the sidewall tells you the week and year the tyre was made, and the replacement guidance in your handbook and from the tyre maker is what tells you when it has had enough. Price a full set including the spare, then divide it across the years you expect to get from them.
Storage
If the van will not fit at home, storage becomes a standing monthly bill, and it is one of the few running costs you can shop around for. Yards price differently for open, undercover and locked storage, and the same three options cost different money in different postcodes. Whether the van can live on your own property at all is a council question rather than a national one.
Roadside assistance
The question worth settling is whether the cover you already hold extends to the van as well as the car, because that is what decides whether you need a second product at all. Caravan-specific cover is sold on the recovery of the van itself, so check what your existing membership or policy does while a van is hitched behind you, and check it before a trip rather than during one.
The service book is worth money twice
Servicing on schedule keeps the warranty conditions met while you own the van, and the folder of invoices is one of the few things that makes a used van straightforward to sell later. The same receipts do both jobs, so keep them somewhere better than the glovebox. Our guide to what puts a warranty claim at risk sets out what a booklet usually asks of you.
What travelling adds
These are the lines you control completely, because they only exist on the nights you are away. They are also the reason two owners of identical vans can report costs that sound nothing alike.
Site and park fees
This is the single biggest variable in a travelling year, and it is entirely in your control. A powered site in a coastal park in school holidays and a low-cost camp inland in the off season are different orders of money for the same night's sleep. Parks publish their own nightly rates, so build your figure from the places on the route you actually plan to take, at the time of year you plan to take it.
The fuel the van adds
Towing costs fuel because your engine has to overcome the van's rolling resistance and push the extra air it displaces. How much depends on the weight, the shape, your speed, the terrain and the wind, so there is no single percentage that applies to every rig and anyone quoting you one is guessing. Start from the consumption you know you get when you are not towing, and work the extra out from there.
Gas, water and the small consumables
Gas bottle refills, drinking water where it has to be bought, laundry, and the replacement of things that shake loose or wear out are individually small and collectively steady. They are easiest to handle as one weekly allowance for the weeks you are away rather than as separate lines you will never track.
Wear that only happens on the road
Kilometres consume brakes, bearings, tyres and the greasable parts of the running gear, so a van that travels a long way each year reaches its next service earlier and its next set of tyres sooner. That is not an argument against using the van. It is the reason a cost per year and a cost per night can tell you two different stories about the same caravan.
Depreciation, the cost with no invoice
Every other line on this page arrives as a bill you have to pay. This one arrives once, at the end, as the difference between what you paid for the van and what somebody hands you for it. Spread across the years in between, it is usually larger than the rego, the insurance, the service and the tyres combined.
That is not a reason to avoid buying a caravan. It is a reason to count it, because an owner who has counted it makes different decisions about which van to buy and how long to keep it.
The arithmetic is plain. Take what you paid, subtract what the van would realistically sell for today, and divide by the years you have owned it. The second number is the hard one, and it is a job with a method rather than a guess.
Structuring the loan around this line
Jade Finance arranges caravan loans and can talk through a deposit and a term that leave room for the depreciation above, rather than fighting it.
A quote is not a loan application.Free, no obligation, no credit check to get a quote, about 2 minutes.If you want to go further, Jade handles the next step.
Get a caravan finance quote →Jade Finance pays us a commission if you finance through them. About Jade
Build your own annual figure
Work through these in order and you will finish with a number for your van, in your state, for the way you actually travel. Most of it is a page of notes and a few phone calls.
1. Write down the four standing bills you can quote today
Registration, insurance, storage and roadside cover are all quotable right now, by anyone, for free. One government web page and three phone calls settle the largest fixed part of the year, and they settle it exactly rather than approximately.
2. Add one service at your booklet's interval
Ring the place that will actually do the work, describe the van and ask what a scheduled service on it costs. A workshop will tell you, and the answer is worth more than any average because it is the price you will be paying.
3. Add tyres as a set, divided by the years you will get from them
Price a full set including the spare from somewhere you would really buy them, then spread that across the life you expect. Tyres are a large bill that arrives rarely, which is exactly the shape of cost that wrecks a budget when it is left off one.
4. Cost the trips you actually plan, not a year of travel you imagine
Nights away multiplied by what the parks on your route charge, plus the kilometres multiplied by what towing adds to your fuel. Two weekends and one long lap are wildly different years, so this line only means something once you have decided which one you are having.
5. Put depreciation on the list even though no bill arrives
Take what you paid, subtract what you believe the van would sell for today, and divide by the years you have owned it. It is the only line here nobody invoices you for, and on most vans it is larger than everything above it put together.
6. Divide by twelve and set that money aside monthly
A caravan year is lumpy: the rego notice, the service and the tyres never arrive in the same month as each other. Turning the annual figure into a monthly transfer is what stops a quiet month and a brutal one from feeling like a surprise.
Two figures, and they answer different questions
The annual total tells you what the van costs you to own. The same total divided by the nights you sleep in it tells you what it costs you to use, and those two numbers point in opposite directions the moment the van sits still for a year. Work out both before you decide the caravan is expensive.
What actually moves the number
Four things separate an expensive caravan year from a modest one, and none of them is the badge on the front.
How often you use it
The standing bills are charged whether the van moves or not, so a van that goes away often costs less per night than an identical one that sits behind the shed. The annual figure barely changes. What changes is what you got for it.
Where it sleeps
A van that fits at home removes an entire monthly bill from the list. It also removes the trip to the yard, which is the reason a stored van is used less often than a van in the driveway.
Weight and size
A heavier, taller van sits in a higher registration band in most states, uses more fuel behind the same car, and wears a bigger set of tyres. None of that is a reason to buy small. It is a reason to know that two vans with similar sticker prices can run at different costs for as long as you own them.
How well it is kept, and how well it is documented
Servicing on schedule, resealing before water finds a way in and keeping every invoice does two jobs at once. It keeps small faults from becoming structural ones, and it is the folder that makes the van straightforward to sell later, which is the depreciation line rewarding you at the far end.
The weight side of that is worth a read on its own, because it decides your registration band, your fuel and whether the car in the driveway is the right car at all: caravan weights explained.
Running cost questions, answered
What does it cost to run a caravan each year in Australia?
The standing bills come to roughly $844 to $1,883 a year for a caravan kept at home, before insurance. That is registration of $71 to $618 depending on which state you are in, one scheduled service, and a set of tyres spread across the years you get from them. Paid storage adds $1,740 to $4,200 a year on top if the van will not fit at home. Insurance is quoted on your own van and postcode rather than published as an average, and depreciation carries no invoice at all and is usually larger than everything above it put together.
How often does a caravan need servicing?
Builders commonly set the first service at 1,000km or three months, whichever comes first, and then annually or every 10,000km, but the interval in your own warranty booklet is the one that counts. A service covers the wheel bearings, brakes, suspension, coupling and a general check of the body and seals. Warranties are frequently conditional on those services being completed and recorded, which is a second reason not to let one slide.
What is the biggest running cost of a caravan?
For most owners it is depreciation, and it is the one nobody budgets for because no invoice arrives. The value a van loses between the day you buy it and the day you sell it is real money, spread quietly across the years in between. It is also the line you have the most influence over, through how the van is bought, how it is looked after and how well the history is documented.
Is a caravan cheaper than paying for accommodation?
It depends on how much you use it, which is why the useful comparison is cost per night rather than cost per year. The standing bills are charged whether the van moves or not, so every extra night away reduces the cost per night while barely changing the annual total. Work out your own annual figure first, then divide it by the nights you realistically spend in the van.
Do caravans cost much to maintain?
The scheduled work is modest and predictable: an annual service, tyres on a cycle measured in years rather than kilometres, and the sealing and small repairs that come with anything that lives outdoors. The expensive maintenance is almost always the deferred kind, because water that has been getting in for a season is a structural repair rather than a tube of sealant.
Does a more expensive caravan cost more to run?
Not directly. Running costs track weight, size, how often you travel and where the van is kept far more closely than they track what you paid. The place the purchase price does follow you is depreciation, because a bigger number at the start means a bigger gap between what you paid and what the van is worth later.
Start with the two you can settle today
Your registration band is published, and your insurance is a quote away. Those two alone tell you most of what the year will look like.