Share Ownership In Five Star Branded Vacation Homes

Written by: Nick CopleyLast Updated: Saturday, 05 October 2024 (read original)

GoForth has been quietly developing a niche in the shared ownership of luxury branded residences.

These high-end vacation homes are offered by the world’s leading five-star hotel brands and are often built alongside a hotel development, so they come with the services and amenities that the brands are renowned for.

The GoForth Ownership Model

The key features of the ownership and usage structure are:

Quarter ownership: GoForth offers 1/4th ownership interests in individual vacation homes. This means each 1/4th owner has up to 12 weeks of available time each year, providing a lot of flexibility in reserving time.

Exchange: Owners have equity in one home and can then seamlessly exchange into others within the GoForth group. This provides multiple destinations for an owner to go on vacation. GoForth has also partnered with THIRDHome to offer thousands more potential exchange homes.

Rent: If owners don’t want to use all their 12 weeks in a given year, GoForth will rent out unused nights, which provides rental revenue to offset the maintenance and upkeep of the homes.

GoForth manages these homes, including paying all the bills, overseeing maintenance and renting the homes out on behalf of each ownership group. This means owners can simply arrive and enjoy their vacation home. One other rather unique feature of the model is that owners get a peak date guarantee, giving them their favorite week or even month guaranteed every year. This part works because they only have four owners and would be much harder to balance out in a larger ownership group.

Branded Residences

The trend of luxury brands extending their names to residential developments has gained significant traction over the past 10 to 20 years. Five star hotel brands, high-end fashion houses, and luxury automotive companies have partnered with real estate developers to create branded residences. These developments offer exclusivity, premium services, and the prestige of associating with globally recognized luxury brands. The residences are often built as part of hotel and resort developments.

These brands include The Ritz-Carlton, The Four Seasons, The St. Regis, The Waldorf Astoria, and several more. Most of the branded residences that GoForth has acquired or been looking at are pre-construction. GoForth Founder and CEO, Adam Capes, says that by committing to purchase homes pre-construction his owners can obtain very competitive prices, compared to post construction values, which can provide equity gains quite early in the ownership period.

These branded residences do tend to have higher prices, reflecting a “brand premium,” when compared to other non-branded residences. They also have higher annual carrying costs, because the HOA fees tend to be higher at these branded developments, which again reflects the amenities, services and certainty associated with these five-star brands.

The flip side of this is that these residences can rent for very high nightly rates. So, any owners who want to cover some or all of their annual operating costs, by renting out their nights, may be pleasantly surprised.

“By marketing to a global database of affluent loyal followers who are willing to pay the brand premium, these brands generate significantly higher nightly rates,” said Adam Capes, adding: “Which can mean free vacations or even getting paid to vacation for our owners.” He gave examples of some residences renting for $6,000, $8,000 or even up to $10,000 per night.

Properties

Across the portfolio of homes, GoForth has four homes that are completely sold out, another five are partially sold, and they are expecting to close another four before the year end. The sold out homes include a five bedroom new construction in Deer Valley with access to hotel amenities. In addition to the branded residences, the company is also looking at very individual, unique boutique homes.

Homes with 1/4th interests available include top destinations like Punta Cana (Dominican Republic), Marbella (Spain) and Scottsdale, AZ.

The home in Marbella has 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a private gym and sauna, huge backyard with pool and outdoor kitchen, and it's located just 10 minutes or so from the beach and the hottest spots on the Golden Mile.

In Scottsdale the luxurious 3,000 square-foot villa offers 3 bedrooms, including two master suites and hacienda-style decor, all in a gated community.

Other locations where GoForth is considering properties include Hawaii, additional homes in Costa Rica, Aspen and Florida along 30A.

“So far most owners have purchased interests in more than one home," said Adam, summarizing with “We’re excited to bring together small groups of 3-4 owners that want to own and enjoy these 5 star branded resort experiences and boutique private homes.”