How the super-rich are clubbing together to buy life's big luxuries - The Sunday Times

Fractional ownership is a popular choice for millionaires who want to make their money go further, Ben Hoyle reports.

TIMESHARES are back in vogue -but they are almost unrecognisable from the hard-sell schemes of the 1980s, which condemned thousands of unhappy customers to spending a few weeks every summer in holiday homes they partly owned but barely wanted.

Now, many of the biggest names in music, sport and business are queueing up to buy an eighth of a private jet, 60 days driving a top-of-the-range Ferrari or five weeks a year split between a villa in Tuscany and an Alpine ski chalet.

The latest venture dealing in fractional ownership, as they prefer to call it, is Yachtplus, which is offering its launch customers the chance to buy an eighth of a yacht designed by the Norman Foster Partnership, the architects behind the Swiss Re Headquarters, better known as the Gherkin, in the City of London.

The company hopes to do for boats what NetJets did for private jets. Founded in the US in 1986, NetJets pioneered "fractional ownership" and now has more than 5,000 shareholders worldwide, including celebrities such as Bono, Tiger Woods, and Madonna.

Joshua Rex, a senior consultant at Ledbury Research, which specialises in luxury brands, said that even the very wealthy have realised that owning a hugely expensive but rarely used asset is a waste of money. "The companies involved will bend over backwards to avoid the word timeshare because it still suggests disreputable salesmen flogging dud properties," he said.

"However, many millionaires who could afford to own a yacht, third home, or private jet outright now prefer to own a fraction of it because it makes better financial sense and takes away much of the hassle of full ownership."

One 49-year-old investment banker in London, who preferred not to be named, said that fractional ownership enabled him to make the most of the limited time he had with his young family.

He earns a seven-figure salary and pays about Pounds 76,000 a year part for his share of a private jet with NetJets. He is also a member of Exclusive Resorts, which owns more than 200 upmarket properties around the world. There is a one off joining fee of $375,000 (just over Pounds 200,000) and an annual fee of $20,000 to $30,000.

Most of the people who know his family in London have no idea that they fly around Europe by private jet at weekends, he said.

"I don't spend frivolously -there is no Ferrari sitting in the drive at home and I don't wear designer clothes. But I do live on adrenalin at work and I can only take a week off at a time so I don't want to waste any of it," he said.

Fractional ownership will save the wealthy a fortune but it will not place the billionaire lifestyle within reach of the masses. Han Verstraete, the founder and chief executive of Yachtplus, said that his clients would pay about Pounds 150,000 each a year over eight years for their share of a boat, instead of spending Pounds 7 million up front and Pounds 1million a year in maintenance costs if they bought it alone.

"Nobody really spends more than 10 per cent of their worth on a boat," he said.

"We have lowered the threshold for yacht-ownership big time but you would still need to be worth more than Pounds 15 million -which was still a lot of money last time I checked."

Those with slightly less to spend could look into joining the P1 Club, a company which owns a fleet of more than 40 high-performance cars co-founded by Damon Hill, the former Formula One world champion.

Members pay a joining fee of Pounds 2,500 and annual membership starts at Pounds 11,750 for 5,000 miles' driving.

Rob Hersov, the vice-chairman of NetJets, is so enthusiastic about the future that he is even prepared to discuss the industry's most taboo term.

"Timeshare is only a dirty word because of the scam- mongers who became associated with it," he said. "I think people are seeing this as a smart choice now, which gives you the ultimate luxury lifestyle at a fraction of the cost.

"You could do many other things this way, like vineyards, chauffered limousines and even household staff. Hugely expensive jewellery would work particularly well.

I think footballers' wives would love it."