24 Jun 2009

Flexible Property Investment?

If the idea of owning a luxury asset to use occasionally appeals or if your budget does not stretch the whole way, fractional ownership may be for you. For a fraction of the price of the whole, you can own part of the asset. For many, this investment vehicle offers the gateway to investment in luxury (including property investment), allowing those without seven-figure bank balances to enjoy high-end assets.

Flexible freehold ownership, also known as fractional or collective ownership, has been a popular concept in the US for many years because it offers an innovative alternative to investors. Not surprisingly, the idea is fast catching on in the rest of world.

Flexible or fractional ownership involves buying part of an asset (usually luxury) – for example, property, private jets and cruisers, racehorses or even a vineyard – for a small part of the cost of the whole asset. Investors purchase a part and can sell, donate or bequest this at any time. Since investors are direct owners of the asset, they also benefit from increases in the value of the asset should they decide to sell it.

Although fractional ownership is sometimes confused with timeshare, it is radically different. Investors in flexible ownership directly own a part of the asset. Participants in a timeshare scheme do not own any part of the asset – just the right to use it at an allocated time – nor do they benefit from any increase in the asset’s value. Timeshare is a cost, not an asset.

Another fundamental difference between timeshare and fractional ownership is that no financing options are available for timeshare. On the other hand, many banks and financial entities will provide loans for purchases of fractional ownership. Since fractional ownership is an asset owned for perpetuity and is ‘sellable, giveable and willable’, it is no different from outright ownership.NUBRICKS