JUNE 2011 |
www.opp.org.uk
THE LAST WORD Developer profi le NICK BETTANY | 65
“I really liked the fact that there was no one dominant nationality. 10% of the people on the course were French and 10% were British … and they were the two biggest ethnic groups. After that, it was a real mix” He obviously dislikes the idea of
boundaries in any sense, and he takes a genuinely broad view. For Bettany, running a business is second nature. Commerce is in the blood. His father was a successful fund manager who relocated his business to Jersey, where London-born Bettany grew up. He did an economics degree at Cambridge and then trained as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse Coopers specialising in auditing large financial institutions. Next came a role as a fund accountant with the Royal Bank of Canada and then a stint with the Jersey Financial Services Commission where he “worked on a 2-year investigation into one of the UK’s biggest-ever cases of financial mismanagement.”
What did all this teach him? Work hard and make sure that you fully understand what it is that makes your business tick, he says. So … what really drives The
Hideaways Club? What makes its business model work, what are its USPs and why was he attracted to the concept? “It’s simplicity,” he says, “and
it’s ability to offer something a little bit different.”
“Why own an overseas property all year round, when you can probably only be there for 2 or 3 weeks at a time? Why take on all the upkeep and the insurance and servicing costs … it’s a real ballache in my opinion.
I fi rst met Mike Balfour (Hideaways chairman and founder of Fitness First, the world’s biggest health club chain) in 2009 and I instantly liked the concept. I just got it straight away. The model allows us to be asset light, to manage properties on behalf of our clients, to give a really high quality experience to everyone involved. We are unleveraged and low risk, and we keep things exclusive and desirable with a rule that says a ratio of no more than 6 members to each property. We like to know our clients personally and to offer something that is off the beaten track.” Does the company consider itself to be a very posh timeshare operation. “No, defi nitely not,” says Bettany. “I have never understood the timeshare concept – what do you get for your investment at the end of it all? We’re completely different. We have real assets behind it all. We buy and we hold.”
The Hideaways concept is clever: it is a highly selective international prime residential property investment fund and a private members club at the same time. The fund invests in and carefully manages luxurious holiday homes all around the world for its carefully- chosen, professionally-vetted members ... and allows only them to access and enjoy the portfolio created. “The fund focuses on value creation,”
says Hideaways. And it is exclusive. “All our members have to be high net-worth
individuals,” says Bettany. “There is a membership committee based in Gibraltar and you will have to give them bank and character references when you apply.” A lot of people don’t get in. Three-quarters of the members
are European, the rest from around the world. The company’s USP, says Bettany, is that “we are asset-backed and unleveraged. There is almost no risk exposure involved. We have a diversifi ed range of properties all around the world and we are not geographically or demographically over-dependent on one area. And what we really offer is a lifestyle … a high-standard lifestyle with a concierge service,” designed to make everything in life feel as smooth as possible for its members. “Our closest rival is probably Rocksure,” he adds, “and our next development phase will be concentrated on growth. We have 34 properties in the portfolio now. I will make sure that we have 100 in two years’ time.” Are they looking at focusing on
any specifi c regions around the globe? “Not really,” says Bettany. “I would like to see us build up a good south east Asian portfolio, in countries like Vietnam or Cambodia ... because we shouldn’t just plump for obvious territories like Tuscany or the south of
France. Croatia and Barbados are on the radar right now as well.” “But, overall,” he concludes, “we will always want to buy into high quality products that will bring good capital appreciation.”
What do the members think?
Former international tennis star Tim Henman says “Having travelled the world for so many years, I’ve frequently thought about owning somewhere abroad where I can take my family on holiday. But I didn’t want the added responsibility, concerns and associated costs of owning a house overseas. In The Hideaways Club I have a wide variety of beautiful properties that I can use year round, plus the potential growth of my investment.”
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