Europe’s largest holiday home investment fund, The Hideaways Club, is expanding its portfolio to meet a recent surge in new members.

The fund has just announced a partnership with Banyan Tree Private Collection to provide its members with access to the Asian hotel and resort developer’s destination club properties, which it hopes will encourage even more investors to join.

“We now have around 130 investors with 20 more in the pipeline, up from around 60 or 70 last year,” Hideaways Club head of marketing Jemma Lester told OPP. While she admitted the recession had affected the number of new members, she said there had been a pickup at the end of 2009 with 15 members joining in December alone.

“We’re always looking for new properties,” she added. “We maintain a ration of six members to each property and investment regulations mean we always have to stay ahead of the number of new members.” New property selection is carried out by the fund’s management team led by CEO Stephen Wise.

The reciprocal agreement with Banyan Tree follows a similar partnership, announced last week, between The Hideaways Club and North America’s largest holiday home fund, Equity Estates. Hideaways Club investors now have access to a global portfolio of holiday homes, as well as a share in a fund that owns over 25 properties in Europe, South Africa and the Far East.