Never before has there been such a focus on holidays and leisure time. And as our focus intensifies we look for other ways to invest in ourselves, something picked up on by the conference Leisure Real Estate Summit, held in London recently.
The conference, explored the wide range of options available to travellers and leisure investors from shared ownership to holiday rentals and home exchanges.
Though the audience was made up of the industry’s leading lights, including the likes of The Registry Collection, RCI, the Hoseason’s Group and resort developers such as Hapimag and Dubrovnik Sun Gardens, the Leisure Real Estate Summit revealed a number of trends that are set to shape the way we travel and spend our leisure time.
Leisure Real Estate Summit, formerly Fractional Summit, tackled questions on how hotels and resorts could maximise owners’ income through various schemes such as rental programmes. Marco Bradi, chief sales officer at Hapimag explained how the company combined equity funds with an flexible travel club.
The company now in it’s 50th year has 57 resorts and residences across Europe. Bradi said: “Our motto is ‘meeting today’s needs and tomorrow’s expectations’ and we’re doing so with a diverse product range.
“We give our 141,000 members more than just a holiday but a platform for individual and mobile lifestyles that make economic and ecological sense and cater for all phases of their lives.”
Leisure real estate meets collaborative consumption
A growing trend in the leisure real estate market is the explosion in companies giving people the chance to experience someone else’s lifestyle by coming together to share their assets.
The big names in collaborative consumption in travel include the likes of AirBnB which allows travellers to rent out a room or entire property owned by a network of people like you and me. The Leisure Real Estate Summit also looked at how these firms are shaping the market. onefinestay is giving travellers to London and New York the chance to rent someone’s house, but the onefinestay team go in first and deck it out like a five-star hotel. Added to that, onefinestay’s members have access to exchanges into exclusive properties in The Registry Collection portfolio of resorts. Love Home Swap meanwhile is a stylish, international home exchange site with more than 5,000 properties in more than 95 countries.
Fractional Life owner and conference organiser, Piers Brown said: ”The range of disciplines represented at the Leisure Real Estate Summit served to underline the sheer variety of property options for today’s consumer. Whole ownership, fractional ownership, equity and points based timeshare models, as well as a wealth of rental and homeswap options were discussed at the Summit, illustrating that there is an option available for every buyer’s needs and lifestyle.
