Want a more opulent lifestyle – but don't have the million dollars in cash to finance it? You've worked hard and you've done well, but the $ 4 million business jet, yacht, and oceanfront home aren't possible right now.
Fractional ownership may be the solution to your dilemma! With fractional ownership, an expensive asset (jet, yacht, vacation home, classic car) is held in cooperation with a number of other people; each holds a percentage share of the assets and has defined rights and privileges regarding the use of the assets. A management company provides stability and organization to allow owners of stocks predictable and effortless access to assets.
This concept works well with a variety of assets that can be used periodically. For example, second homes are used by their owners 2 to 4 weeks per year on average. If you have visited a marina recently, you have probably realized that a good part of the slides are occupied by boats – that is to say that they are not used. Business jets remain inactive until leaders need to travel.
Fractional ownership offers you, as a shareholder, reliable access to that luxurious asset that you want or need but don't want to pay for 365 days a year. And, as you are part of an owner pool, all maintenance, management, upkeep, repair, taxes and insurance costs are shared within the group . The management company plans the use of the owners and takes care of routine maintenance, accounting and repairs.
In short: you get what you want, when you want it – without the headache, expense and responsibility of full ownership.
Fractional ownership is increasingly used for ultra-luxury items. Many companies offer fractional shares of business aircraft (flexjet.com, netjets.com); turboprop aircraft (avantair.com); and helicopters (heliflite.com, sikorskyshares.com).
Partial ownership of luxury yachts – both motor and sailing – is widespread. Companies like monocleyachts.com, eusamarine.com and seanetco.com offer fractional yacht ownership on the east and west coasts, in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.
Classic cars such as the Lamborghini Murcielago, the Lamborghini Gallardo, the Rolls Royce Phantom, the Bentley Continental GTC, the Aston Martin Vanquish S, the high-end Porsches and the Ferrari 360 Spider are available in fractional ownership from various companies such as extremecarshare.com, curvyroad.com and clubsportiva.com. The fractional shareholders of these clubs can choose a membership which allows them to rotate their property between the different cars in the fleet, rather than owning only a fractional share of a classic car.
"Land yachts" – VR – are yet another category of luxury items that often see only intermittent use, so wisdom dictates fractional ownership here too. Coachshare.com and sharerv.com offer fractional shares in Monaco luxury coaches.
Racehorses have long belonged to unions – collectives of owners who jointly own them to share costs and risks. Union members were often friends or business acquaintances who knew each other and formed the union privately. Now fractional ownership models are in use. In Great Britain, the winner of the 2005 Vodafone Derby marked the history of the race: Motivator, the winning horse, did not belong to a breeder or a super rich personality, but to a union of 230 individuals from business classes.
The concept of fractional ownership is creatively developed in various fields. Wine Estate Capital Management makes fractional ownership of vineyards in France and South Africa available to buyers. Many art donors find it convenient to contribute a fractional share of their art to the museum of their choice, thereby ensuring their continued enjoyment of their collection for part of each year.
Luxury handbags are now available in timeshare, so if you want to diversify your collection without buying them all, your dilemma is solved. Shouldercandy.com offers handbags from Chloé, Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Burberry, Marc Jacobs, Chanel and more.
However, the most widespread application of the fractional ownership model is in the holiday home sector. Due to the growing popularity of fractional ownership of vacation homes and the additional complexity of dealing with real estate, this topic will be the subject of another article.
Comments are closed.