Legacy gets into fractional trend

HOTEL and resort developer and manager The Legacy Group said this week it had launched the Legacy Private Residencies Club to cater for the “burgeoning” resort property fractional-ownership market.

The group, the developer and manager of the Michelangelo in Johannesburg, Bakubung game lodge in the Pilanesberg, and the Kruger Park Lodge golf estate, said MagicBreakaways Leisure Developments, its resort development arm, would develop and market fractional ownership of selected properties in key resorts in SA.

These would initially include the Kruger Park Lodge, and Wilderness Dunes on the Cape Garden Route.

Peter Foaden, MD of MagicBreakaways Leisure Developments, said fractional ownership in the South African context referred to a division of a particular house in leisure property between different owners.

Foaden said that, for instance, MagicBreakaways would build a house in Kruger Park Lodge and sell it to 12 owners, who would get four weeks a year each.

He said fractional ownership had become “quite popular in SA over the last two years”.

“It’s grown quite quickly because of the growth in the leisure market. There has been a strong demand for it because investors are not keen to invest a substantial amount in a home they will only utilise for four to six weeks a year. This is a far more effective utilisation of an investor’s funds, particularly in a holiday property portfolio.”

Foaden said one of the benefits for investors of buying into Legacy Private Residencies Club was that the properties were all managed by the Legacy Group.

“The fractional ownership concept combines the advantages of hassle-free second-home ownership, the services and amenities of a fine resort, as well as the benefits of exchange to other elite destinations, all without the hefty price tags usually associated with full ownership,” he said.