Fractional Title - the new way to own property

 

Fractional ownership is a method in which several unrelated parties can share in, and mitigate the risk of, ownership of a high-value tangible asset, usually a jet, yacht or piece of resort real estate. It can be done for strictly monetary reasons, but typically there is some amount of personal access involved. One of the main motivators for a fractional purchase is the ability to share the costs of maintaining an asset that will not be used full-time by one owner.

The difference between fractional title and time share is that one allows you to OWN the property whereas the other allows you to USE the property . 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_ownership

Once upon a time there was SECTIONAL  title which in South Africa became legitimised in 1986.( see link) 

 Our family brought the idea from Canada in 1974 and after buying a plot of land in Somerset West and getting the architectural plans passed by the local municipality we approached SAAMBOU building society with the concept .

They agree to give us a loan to develop the land  into individual units  which in itself was revolutionary at the time . 

We had already been an establish and experienced property development company in Pickering , Toronto Canada since 1971. 

I recall building our first house from the ground up .

 In South Africa my step father who was a self taught genius from Made Simple books and someone who consumed information until he was able to apply it actually drew those first plans . His name was Donald Curtis Johnson . He actually succeeded in that first development of 8 units then 11 units . Montpellier Mews and Bayview Heights were and still are very well built units that sell upwards of 100 000 dollars each today . 

SECTIONAL TITLE : 

• Sectional title describes the separate ownership of a unit within a group-owned complex or development.
• Sectional title offers advantages such as heightened security, communal outdoor spaces and a greater sense of community.
• However, unit owners have to abide by the rules and regulations of the complex and contribute to the upkeep.
• The bank will need to check the financials of the body corporate before granting a home loan.

https://lex-icon.co.za/Media-Centre/News-Blog/entryid/2248/a-comprehensive-guide-to-sectional-title-rules-in-south-africa#:~:text=Establishment%20of%20Sectional%20Title%20Development,-This%20is%20usually&text=95%20of%201986)%2C%20which%20provides,the%20registration%20of%20these%20subdivisions.

But this is not what I want to talk to you about - property is all about SPACE MANAGEMENT - in fact the greatest innovation in the tech world in silicone valley is all about space management . 

It’s a trillion dollar enterprise that has created amazing wealth globally today. 

Take Airbnb for example … this is all about renting out units that would otherwise be empty or under - EMPTY SPACE . Uber another innovation that created incredible wealth - one hour rental cars … time share … house shares .. booking . Com all about managing space . Zipcars - STAKE is the latest innovation from Dubai . the list is endless but the principle is the same . 

Today you can simply download the app and buy a small fraction of a million dollar property and even get a title deed. The problem with this app is adoption and returns on investment. We want F.G.R.O.I. ( fucking -good -return -on -investment ) 

 Stake is not true ownership but investment but it’s still an innovation . 

 BTW the investment whilst solid doesn’t give you much on your money .

 The only innovation is to have a small percent of a large property and you get a paper to say that you have a “stake” . But you are limited in selling it by tranches . Ie the next tranche whereby I can dump it is only in may. Next . 

Backpackers lodges started 35 years ago first with the international youth hostel association but then with ordinary people who looked at hotels and said they are charging too much for an unsocial experience . People want both solitude and sociality. 

In 1992 whilst on a holiday with my father in Madagascar I came up with the idea of the transformation of empty houses into backpackers lodges and house shares . 

 I helped to initiate and start two lodges first Shoestrings Lodge  in Victoria falls and then Zoo  lodge in Johannesburg . Later on I would rent big houses and sublet them into rooms in London using the same space management concept .  At the time we wanted to do it from Cape to Cairo . 

Any unused space has the potential to be monetised . 

The backpacking industry fell away and was replaced by the volunteer industry - workaway.info couch surfing and many other sites are all inspired by this same principle . 

In fact Amazon is again a space management business that utilises and maximises space by advertising books that have not even been printed . That’s how they made their money . That and using the United States postal service until they didn’t need it . It’s all about innovating space . That’s how Bizos  made his fortune as did Zuckerberg . Even Elon Musk took the phone book and digitalised it into virtual reality thereby out dating the beds for heavy phone books and SAVING SPACE - for that idea he got millions of dollars which helped him do the next business on the ladder up to becoming the worlds richest man . Same principle . 

Today the trend is remote work . 

We saw this trend during covid  as we were all forced to stay inside and somehow survive . Facebook another space management business - you have your own little account on one platform and network with others . It’s nothing special . But it works . 

So today with digital currency like bitcoin taking over we also have DIGITAL NOMADS or DNS who claim to be part of the DIGITAL NATION .

 And these new space age travellers travel the world working remotely and getting paid in USDT and other crypto assets. They normally stay in one place for between one month and 6 months because that’s what most countries except Georgia allow . ( 364 days ). However, the world today is becoming  globally mobile .

 Your typical DN rents an apartment in Florianopolis or ALTO Paraiso in Brazil on Airbnb for a month or two goes surfing or does the local gym and has his whole life on his phone investing in stocks shares and crypto assets with several bank accounts in different tax havens around the planet . 

The future is this NEW EARTH  reality ! realising we are beyond nationalities and part of the planet Earth as a global citizen . 

 But this new community wants more and so do other upwardly mobile people . 

They don’t want to do May in Johannesburg or December in London but gave better choices . This community of nomads are the New Age travellers  who are looking  for not only quality of life but also quality of living !!!

Because humans are largely creatures of habit and they need to connect with familiar things and terminals and people or it becomes all a blur . 

I recall in 2006 as I organised a peace gathering in the Sinai desert . My vision was to create a healing and reconciliation village in Dahab . And many of us settled there and built  our lives there with the bedouin meeting in the Russian Bane or the open Mike nights . 

We would come and go . Maybe spending 6 months or one month doing activities like kitesurfing or diving or snorkelling . 

Today it is a success . I have made many connections and most iimportant life long friends . 

This digital community are wanderers … Adrenalin junkies .. travellers … mobile digital nomads who earn 2000 to 4000 dollars a month online sometimes less sometimes more . 

And this is the trend. 

Young people want to travel and work . 

Their attention span is less than before . But they still want to meet good people and live in beautiful places all around the world doing ayawasca or learning how to rock climb or dive or surf or work with wild animals .

 The list is endless . 

So this is what they want . In fact this is what a lot of people want today . 

An address but any addresses and many choices . From Iceland to Colombia to Zambia to Zanzibar to Bali or Thailand .. they want …

FRACTIONAL OWNERSHIP! 

Own not a two week impersonal timeshare but a fraction of something they can co create with others into something more . 

Perhaps a locker that will store their personal effects until they drop by in a year or two . As long as it’s safely stored who cares?

Owning one twelfth or one third or one half of a property and getting a proper legal title … that is actually worth something - 

A FRACTIONAL TITLE DEED !

As sectional title divided a piece of land into Units designed for sale to one person each - what if properties were bought in the same way but at a fraction of the cost ? 

This is the problem in modern UK or other evolved  countries . Property is way too expensive . 

The cheapest buy in grater London is around 250 000 pounds or 300k . 

Imagine if you could own a FRACTION  of that for 20k and then live somewhere else in the sunshine for 3 months for 5 k ? 

AND EARN MONEY ON YOUR INVESTMENTS  ? Year by year month by month so when you eventually want to retire you can do so in a place where you already know the people and the environment . You don’t have to waste time getting to know everyone or everything . 

Imagine you could cover the entire year IN different parts of the world for around 50 000 euro ? Even in high end markets like London - New York - Tel Aviv and Shanghai . Why waste space?

You can hold properties in solid stable and accruing real estate markets from Portugal to South Africa to Sydney to anywhere ? even far out places like Abkhazia . It’s only about how much skin you want to have in the game . Imagine you can start off owning a property portfolio from as little as 800 dollars ? 

And imagine if resale or rental was seamless ? Or if you wanted to borrow off your collateral ? And get paid anywhere in FIAT or in Digital ? And hold bank accounts both virtual and real anywhere on the planet ? Tax free ? 

Imagine you could do so instantly ? 

That’s fractional title .  That’s the way of the future ! 

Building communities by building people .