A breakfast briefing organised by OPP on the second trade day of the Property Investor Show and OPPLive, designed to address the issue of fractional awareness, brought together some of the industry’s major influencers to decide on a course of immediate action.

This included Xavier Wiggins, CEO of the Richmond Green Group; Paul Owen, CEO of the AIPP; Nick Turner, VP Business Development EMEA at The Registry Collection; Piers Brown, founder of Fractional Life; Paul and Sharon Mattimoe, publishers of the Perspective shared ownership titles; Brad Lincoln and Jeff Hankin of fractional consultancy The Best Group); Ray Levin, of US based consultancy Fractional Properties of the World ; Albert de Koning, of Dutch timeshare and fractional tour operator Flexximmo; and Paul Gardner Bougaard, head of FSOTA and CEO of the Resort Developers Organisation.

Despite the individual agendas and commercial interests of the attending organisations, all were agreed that time was of the essence to increase fractional awareness and interest among European buyers. In addition to the thousands of units that will come on to the market next year, Gardner Bougaard pointed out that new timeshare legislation is coming in 2011 that all developers offering shared ownership will have to comply with. “We have to educate the trade as much as the consumer,” he said, “because they are also confused by mixed messages.”

Time to act
The answer, ventured Wiggins, was a unified marketing initiative, funded by the biggest developers, to promote fractional awareness and education worldwide. “Despite the collective efforts of all those around the table to promote awareness, whether it’s Gofractional.com, Fractionallife.com, Newskys.co.uk or OPP, there’s a long way to go - and the window of opportunity for this sector won’t stay open for very long,” he said.

Gardner Bougaard agreed but said the initiative “must be under-pinned by a trade body that can speak for the industry, provide a point of contact for journalists and government, and show its teeth where necessary”.

However, Owen warned that a committee-based approach inevitably delayed action: “It’s too easy to get bogged down in association admin, and it’s impossible to change a market without educating the consumer. You need someone to live and breathe it.”

Proposing a champion of the fractional industry, working within the remit of FSOTA but funded by developers committed to raising and managing awareness of fractional ownership, the group agreed that the best solution was an “international and commercially aware individual who could build relationships with the media and speak with gravity to governments and CEOs to promote a positive agenda on fractional”. FSOTA is now coordinating input from the group about the job description and criteria for the proposed individual.