Fractionals-Recession beaters?

The financial forecast is foreboding skies of doom and gloom with apparently scattered ruin and no signs of any rays of hope breaking through the ominous clouds. Pick up any periodical and you’re faced with similar turgid metaphors, some are in fact worse than that one but at least I haven’t mentioned ‘credit crunch’ yet. Darn.

But is there a sunny flipside to all this? For savvy fractional purchasers there certainly could be as despite the calls for us to spend our way out of recession it’s more than fair to say that the property purchasers are keeping their wallets firmly closed but if you are one of the few prepared to part with your cash then it is very much a buyer’s market with more negotiating options available to you.

Whilst there is no official collection of fractional prices the downturn in overall property values does appear to be translating into lower buy-in costs, a greater transparency on the part of the operator and some great deals such as incentive packages and try-before-you-buy schemes. Like any property deal most things are negotiable- the key is to push for that perfect deal and go in with a’ don’t ask, don’t get’ attitude from deposits to annual dues and everything in-between.

But when to take the plunge? By their nature fractionals are somewhat hardy to recession- in good times those who could not previously dream of owning a luxurious holiday home outright can upgrade their expensive regular holidays to a part-share in something on a par or beyond the finest hotels and in the current climate those previous sagacious spenders ‘down-grade’ to fractional. Maintaining their lifestyle but at a fractional of the cost. Obviously those who bought in high-times are going to be distressed to find their fraction drop in value but fractionals are often an investment in one’s lifestyle and enjoyment rather than an outright financial one. Good times or bad that is a healthy outlook to have and weighing up how much one can spend on two or three luxury getaways per year it often makes sense to go fractional without even factoring in the fact that you will own a slice of real estate. As I have discussed previously due diligence is paramount when purchasing a fractional- there have been a number of high-profile closures in the marketplace but there have been an even greater number of exciting new opportunities from new entrants to the market and established players so it is important to establish the stability of any offering you are looking into.

Whatever occurs in the broader marketplace fractional ownership is a growing emerging market in Europe so current economic woes are, to a certain extent, offset by the increasing understanding and acceptance in the wider market which brings with it a growth in demand.