Share the action

Press, 26 December 1979, Page 5

Share the action

New Zealanders aie great holiday-makers. We have been brought up to expect an annual resort holiday as a right rather than a luxury. But soaring accommodation costs and the high prices of holiday real estate are making this national pastime increasingly difficult. Local developers with an eye for overseas trends have come up with what appears to be a sensible solution. Time-sharing of holiday accommodation has been a phenomenon overseas for years. Explained simply, it gives individuals or families the right to use holiday homes for a specific period each year, upon payment of a lump sum. With inflation running at more than fifteen per cent a year, the family’s holiday is protected and assured. The town-house or villa is theirs for however long they have elected to use it, regularly and without any of the problems associated with either ownership or rental. Now New Zealand has woken up to the possibilities. Plans are going ahead all over the country to develop time-share holiday complexes. The first to be completed however, is the Turner Heights development in Queenstown. Christchurch-based businessman Mr David Bradford is pioneering the time-sharing scheme with nine luxury town-houses, furnished and ready for occupation, in the South Island's most prestigious holiday resort. Each unit in the Turner Heights group can accommodate up to five people, is fully equipped to international standards, and

can be purchased for one week a year during the next ten years at prices ranging from $ll5O to $3450. depending , on the time of the fear. Mr Bradford is confident that New Zealanders will respond to the new idea. “The biggest problem we face is in educating people to accept the time-sharing concept. We are selling holidays, not real estate,” Mr Bradford says. Mr Bradford has recently returned from an overseas trip where he saw time-sharing in action at some of America’s most popular resorts. "The size of the industry over there is staggering.” he says. “There are more than a quarter of a million families taking time-sharing holidays every year. It’s made an enormous difference to the development of prime holiday resorts in the States.” The key to the success of the time-share holiday is its combination of the benefits Of property ownership without the associated drawbacks. Research in the United States shows that use of holiday homes owned by Americans averages 17 days a year. For the rest of the year, property' owners have to pay rates, maintain the land and buildings, pay insurance premiums. make security arrangements and repay' mortgage loans. When a family buys a time-share, on the other hand. they buy convenience without responsibility. Apart from a small charge for a proportion of management, maintenance and housekeeping fees, there are absolutely no expenses attached to owning a time-share. The family-

uses the unit as they would their own home. If for any reason the time-share owner wishes to change his holiday arrangements, the period of ownership can be exchanged, or one location can be exchanged for another. A network of timeshare developments exists world-wide, enabling an owner to holiday in any one of 200 prime vacation resorts. Time-shares can also be sub-let at current market rates, which are increasing at present by at least 13 per cent a year. The capital outlay for a time-share is small in relation to property prices and the benefits of the scheme are attractive. It should take New Zealanders little time to attune themselves to this new approach to holidaymaking — it’s practical values are too good to overlook.