APRIL 2010 | www.opp.org.uk
Re: SPANISH COASTAL PRICES KEEP SLIDING
editor@opp.org.uk | 25
Re: TIME RUNNING OUT FOR EUROPEAN FRACTIONAL
Dear editor,
Dear editor,
One needs to take Tinsa valuations and thus Tinsa market information with a shovelful of salt. These are the people who continued to overvalue properties as the market started to slide four years ago allowing certain buyers to get 70% of valuation on a property overpriced by 30%, thus keeping the merry go round spinning for a further year and catching the unwary out at excess prices. I have yet to see a Tinsa valuation that bears any resemblance to an actual achievable market price.
Paul Heneberry, Nejo SL
Dear editor,
We see the Spanish market today as a good buying/investment opportunity, have we hit the bottom of the pricing structure, hard to say, however, there is good property product available across Spain, inland, coastal, and in the Balearic Islands.
Bill Gottfried, Gottfried International Estates
Let us all not forget that fractional ownership is still a relatively very new concept for consumers to trust, particularly through a global recession. The reality is that fractional sales were really doing well in 2006 early 2007 in South Africa but unfortunately the recession literally took the wind out of the sails of the industry just as it was becoming a huge trend. The recession caused a predicted domino eff ect whereby families lacked disposable cash and fi nance options to buy anything that wasn’t essential. This led to a drop in sales, and the response to this was that most developers and agents were naturally reluctant to provide large risk based marketing budgets for product awareness, lead generation and consumer education. With this scenario there was a further drop in sales and so it goes on. This was simply a false start for the fractional sector, which incidentally may
have been a good thing as it forced the industry to relook at pre and post sale models. It would be interesting to see how long conventional fi xed week timeshare took to become a household name a few decades ago? This being said, when you explain the concept of fractional ownership to people the majority have a similar response: that it makes sense to own what you intend to use each year and not have a holiday home sitting empty for the majority of the year, and still pay full upkeep and maintenance costs; and that the concept is similar to timeshare, which also makes sense (however in many cases timeshares were sold using some very dubious sales techniques). I think that the future looks bright for the concept of shared or fractional
property ownership, and as we emerge out of recession I believe that there has been a shift in the mindset of consumers. Most of us still aspire to live well and provide great experiences for our families, and at the same time we have become more conscious of what we pay for and do not use. These two changes in mindset, supported by growing disposable income fi nance options, will draw consumers to upmarket fractional ownerships. Add a decent global exchange program to the product, and that could be the tipping point for a stimulated sales market.
Dirk Wilson, www.fractionalownership.co.za
Re: RUSSIANS FILL ITALY’S UK-BUYER GAP
Dear editor,
The statement that British buyers will take a while before returning to Italy is inaccurate for at least two reasons: 1. British buyers will take a while before going anywhere except their own country the situation may get worse in the wake of the forthcoming general election and the anticipated collapse of the domestic currency; 2. British buyers have been to a very large extent hedge buyers, i.e. speculators borrowing heavily against a very small deposit which does not make them welcome buyers. The few long term buyers, who are of little interest to estate agents because of low churning and non repeat commissions, are always there and are always welcome in Italy as anywhere else in the world.
Ernesto Franz, Multigroup
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