High owner satisfaction rates, longevity and product innovation are three keys to timeshare success. Despite a challenging year for the travel and holiday industries overall, the shared ownership sector has held up comparatively well. Fiona Klonarides reports on green shoots and good news…

They’re not enough to get a party started, but chinks of good news have been filtering in. UK and US retail sales are up, May marked a 15 month hiring high in the US, and even Warren Buffet, America’s silver-haired guru of sensible  investing just saw his Berkshire Hathaway shares hit their highest peak since 2007. The days of Monopoly-style overseas property buying and selling sprees may be over in places like the Costa del Sol but today’s risk-averse consumer psychology is creating new opportunities for timeshare and fractionals.

The sunseeker’s flexible friend, shared ownership is the holiday dream with the affordable price tag – a big plus in the current climate.

Richard McIntosh, head of the Resort Development Organisation (www.RDO. org) commented recently that he believes the conditions for choosing a purchase of fractional, vacation club or timeshare products have probably never been more appropriate than now.

“We have just experienced hopefully the toughest financial crisis of our lifetime, and during that time it has become clear that holidays are not something we are willing to give up or compromise on,” McIntosh noted. “Owners of our products have been able to continue holidaying, with little financial impact, as they reap the benefits of having already purchased their holidays in better times.”

Fractional sales may rebound faster than other real estate sectors
Although economic uncertainty and lack of consumer financing for fractionals hampered sales in 2009, experts believe the fractional market will rebound faster than traditional overseas property sales. Both timeshare and fractional ownership are viable alternatives to second home ownership for a number of reasons, with “entry level” timeshare holiday packages and twelfth-share fractionals making them light on the wallet.

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Tags: Arcos Gardens Golf and Country Estate, Barrasford & Bird, Cape Verde, Club Mahindra, Cyprus, De Vere, Europe, Fractional, Madeira, Morocco, Nick Turner, RCI, RDO, Richard McIntosh, Royal Resorts, Scandinavia, Scotland, SkiStar Vacation Club, The Registry Collection, Timeshare, Tunisia, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, US, Venice On Water