Home Ownership in St. Lucia at a Fraction of the Cost

The traditional model of owning a second home in St. Lucia involves the expense of purchasing the home of your dreams, spending between two and three months of the year enjoying its benefits and then paying to maintain an empty property for the rest of the year. At last there is an alternative which allows you to keep all of the same benefits but to lose the majority of the expense associated with both the purchase and on-going maintenance of your dream home. The alternative is Fractional Ownership.

How Does Fractional Ownership Work

Fractional Ownership allows a property to be sold in shares to an agreed number of like minded co-owners rather than as a whole in the case of a more traditional whole property sale. With Fractional Ownership you only purchase what you intend to use. The dream of owning a second home in a paradise island like St Lucia is very alluring however the fact of the matter is that many luxury homes in St Lucia are underutilized with their owners only visiting once or twice a year for no more than a few months however these homes are incurring substantial maintenance and upkeep costs throughout the year. When a well managed Fractional Ownership structure is applied new investors can still have and own these same luxury homes, for the same period of time, but only pay a fraction of the purchase price and a fraction of the on-going maintenance and upkeep costs. For example, in St Lucia at this moment in time an investor can now purchase a ¼ fractional Share in a fully furnished 4 bedroom luxury townhouse, located in a 5 star beach side resort for as little as $157,500 USD (£96,626 GBP) and still have use of the property for 3 months in every year together with all of the resort facilities. The outright purchase of the whole of this property would be in excess of $450,000 USD. Furthermore, as the property appreciates in value the investor may sell their share at any time and benefit from the increase in value. Fractional ownership is not a new idea, it has been in successful operation for a number of years but is better known for the co-ownership of other luxury items such as private jets, yachts, race horses and luxury motor cars. It is however a natural extension to include the luxury home market.

Fractional Ownership is not Timeshare

Fractional Ownership must not be confused with Time Share. Timeshare involves buying the right to spend an agreed amount of time, usually a 2 week slot, in a property, while fractional ownership is an actual deeded interest, that is you own an equity stake in the property. This means that the Fractional Ownership homeowner will benefit directly from any increase in value of the property while this is not the case with Timesharers. Timeshare involves the sharing of a property between 26 to 52 users with little emotional connection or pride of ownership for a high use and usually abused property. With Fractional Ownership there are usually between 2 – 12 co-owners who really care about their property. Furthermore in a timeshare, the owner has rights over units of “time” while in fractional ownership, the owner has rights over his or her part of the title. This means that when a property involved in fractional ownership appreciates in value over time, then so do each of the co-owners shares and they can sell their shares whenever they see fit and benefit from the appreciation in property value. So during times of appreciation in value Fractional Owners will prosper whereas this is not possible in timesharing. The homes available in St Lucia for fractional ownership range from luxury independent villas in the most exclusive residential areas to townhouse style properties in beautiful beach side resorts.

Property Management

All of our fractional ownership properties are managed by a highly professional Property Management company who take their instructions from the Homeowners Association which consists of all of the co-owners of the property. The Property Management Company ensures that the property is maintained to the highest standard and that it is always ready for the arrival of each of the co-owners. The Property Management Company will also handle all of the administrative tasks involved so ensuring that each of the co-owners can relax and enjoy the holiday home without the bureaucracy of engaging, managing and paying the utility, cleaning and maintenance services. The management company will also maintain the allocation rota and co-ordination of the other owners, all in line with the CC&R’s (Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions) the governing documents of the home owners association.

Generate Income

Some of our fractional ownership properties are located in four and five star resorts which operate a rental pool system. This means that your fraction can be entirely dedicated to your own personal use or can be incorporated into the rental pool allowing the generation of an attractive income stream. For private villas, located outside of a resort your management company will be able to provide a vacation rental option also allowing the generation of income against this style of property.