In 2020, American start-up Pacaso sold a $2.2 million villa in California to eight people who paid $275,000 each, each becoming owners of a luxury second home they can enjoy for several weeks each year for a fraction of the price.
And last year, the company landed in Spain, opening in Marbella where it now has three villas.
“Less than 25 percent of homeowners spend more than a month in their second home. The enjoyment of the house is small when compared to the costs and the time that have to be dedicated to its maintenance”, said Juan Carlos Fernández, founding partner of Abriqot.
“People use the second home for a maximum of six weeks, the rest of the time, it’s empty or rented out,” Bravo added.
Just ‘show up and enjoy it’
While co-ownership in itself is not a new concept – it’s existed for decades informally among friends and family – it is becoming more professional now.
So how does it work? The company selects and buys homes and then markets them as co-ownership properties. Once they’ve found co-owners to sell to – the maximum number is eight – it usually creates a limited company in which the co-owners have a share.
Although the company doesn’t retain any ownership of the property, it does remain on as administrator, offering services, such as financing (this varies between 50 percent with Dalima and 70 percent with Pacaso), alterations, interior design, maintenance, bill payments, cleaning, and so on.
“The co-owner only has to show up at the house and enjoy it”, said Pacaso’s European corporate relations manager Ignacio Alonso.
Of course, this does come at a price. The platforms have a profit margin of around 12 percent, with Dalima – which specialises in ‘affordable luxury’ – coming in at about 5 percent. They also charge for the maintenance and management of the houses: Abrigot, for example, charges a fixed monthly fee of 100 euros per share.
You book dates via the company’s app. Each company has their own rules when it comes to booking dates, but they agree on several things:
“Being able to access a wonderful home for a fraction of what it costs, that is, without having to be a millionaire, is a fundamental factor in the adoption of the model,” Fernández said.
Pacaso would not rule out opening up the business to include “lower-level properties” in future, but they would always seek to maintain “the quality status”, Alonso added.
The idea might seem similar to timeshares, but actually it’s very different – there are far fewer owners and when you buy a timeshare, you don’t ever own a real estate asset.
“A home can be shared by more than 50 people, which means that you only have one week a year to enjoy it,” explained Fernández.
The type of housing is very different, too.
“With timeshares, they are hotel rooms or poorly maintained apartments,” Alonso said.
The companies to buy through and what’s available
Pacaso paved the way for this new business in the US and operates in the US, the UK and Spain. It sold its first 400 units last year. It currently has three stunning villas in Marbella with shares from 632,379 to 788,688 euros apiece.
Abriqot buys houses valued between four and eight million euros, so the shares are sold at prices between €400,000 and €800,000. It has around 25 properties in Costa del Sol, Costa Blanca and Madrid. A mere €128,000 will get you a share in a villa in Jávea or one in a spectacular villa in Sotogrande for €400,000.
Secconda started up in December 2021 and is in the process of purchasing houses in Levante and Catalonia and is also looking to invest in the Dominican Republic. At the moment, it has a villa in Marbella, with a price of €2.8 million euros, so each share is €350,000.
Dalima, a recently created Spanish company, is a bit different: its portfolio is made up of “affordable luxury” homes and specialises in houses that cost between €800,000 and €1.5 million. That puts individual shares at between €80,000 and 150,000, a similar price to that of an apartment on the coast. It has 30 properties, mostly in Alicante. Dalima also allow you to rent the property out through them and use the income generated to cover maintenance costs.
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