In a move which will grow the shared ownership sector, a number of timeshare developers are capitalising on their customers’ enthusiasm for timeshare by expanding their business model to include fractional ownership.

A number of established names in timeshare are now mining their existing client base for upgrades, according to Paul Gardner-Bougaard, chief executive of the Resort Development Organisation (RDO). 

“It’s like hotel groups that do well because their customers already know the brand,” said Gardner-Bougaard. “I know of one resort company in particular that has a very healthy transfer rate where existing timeshare customers are upgrading to fractional.”

Holiday ownership club Seasons has sold around 800 eighth fractions of Spanish apartments and UK holiday cottages to existing timeshare owners in the last 12 months. “We wanted to develop something that stayed faithful to the positive aspects of timeshare but offered more flexibility and an investment opportunity, combined with an easy exit route,” said Seasons’ group marketing director, Leslie McCann.

Tenerife developer Regency Resorts is another timeshare company that has successfully expanded into fractional by marketing to their existing customers. It claims that 300 timeshare owners – around 20% of their existing client base – converted to the company’s first fractional ownership project, the Regency Country Club, from other resorts within the first three months of its launch.

However, surveying the market, RDO’s Gardner-Bougaard stressed that fractional was not going to replace timeshare, saying: “The timeshare industry will continue and go from strength to strength – there is room for both in the market”.