The first co-ownership real estate marketplace for luxury vacation homes launched in Greece on Tuesday with an official event in Athens, attended by representatives of three dozen media outlets.
Under the brand philosophy “property you share, luxury you own,” the pioneering real estate company Owners.gr offers aspiring buyers a portfolio of high-end properties available for fractional ownership from one half to one sixth share, while it also takes care of property management and administration tasks to ensure a smooth and hassle-free co-ownership experience.
From Greece’s most cosmopolitan islands to vibrant city centers and picturesque villages, Owners.gr envisions making luxury vacation homes affordable to more people through this new model of property ownership, which has already been established in the US and has been gaining popularity in European markets, as well.
“Owners.gr realizes the need to transform the Greek real estate market and innovates, creating for the first time an integrated service system that defines the relations between co-owners. It fully manages the property and the company that it belongs to, providing a wealth of services to the co-owners so that they can enjoy luxury without worries about anything else,” says co-founder Kostas Pappas.
Avid interest for vacation homes co-ownership in Greece
Co-ownership of vacation homes is suitable for diverse types of potential owners. This includes Greeks in Greece as well as Greek expats and members of the diaspora; foreigners who love to spend their vacations in Greece; business people who need to travel often to the country; or, on the other hand, property owners who want to sell a share of their secondary home.
According to the European Housing Trend Report 2023 by RE/MAX, sixty-seven percent of respondents in Greece had a positive perception of this innovative co-ownership model for vacation homes, the ninth highest position among European countries. The average European interest in the scheme was very close to the one in Greece at sixty-five percent, while Turkey and Romania topped the list with seventy-nine and seventy-six percent, respectively.
Respondents saw financial affordability as the primary advantage of the co-ownership model, and twelve percent thought it could additionally be a strategic investment. More than one in five believed that co-ownership was the only way to acquire a secondary home, especially in expensive markets such as Greece, Ireland, and Malta.
Younger generations in particular appear clearly attracted to fractional ownership models. Eight in ten of those under 25 consider co-ownership a sustainable option for buying a secondary home. Twenty-six percent of 18 to 24 year old Europeans and twenty percent of 36 to 45-year-olds consider co-ownership a solution for sharing the burden of legal and financial responsibilities of a vacation home.
In the meantime, across the pond, Pacaso, the most significant co-ownership real estate marketplace in the US, said that fifteen to twenty percent of secondary homes in the country’s main touristic markets, such as California and Florida, are currently acquired through fractional ownership schemes.
Transparency and efficiency from legal procedures to concierge services
Thanks to the use of state-of-the-art technology and innovation, Owners.gr offers its clients a transparent and efficient procedure all the way from legal procedures to the booking of their stays and personalized services during their co-ownership.
Carefully selected properties, adhering to the company’s strict quality criteria, are added exclusively to the online platform for ninety days after their readiness for the transfer of the ownership title has been assessed.
Owners.gr takes care of the full legal procedure, creating a Special Purpose Vehicle company (SPV) for the property and making the transfer of the shares to the new co-owners quick and easy.
Once the sale has concluded, Owners.gr becomes the manager of the real estate and provider of concierge services to the co-owners, from property maintenance to the payment of bills and tax obligations or even the booking of bespoke services such as personal chefs, baby sitters, drivers, security staff, and more.
A mobile app enables the co-owners to book stays on rotation from two days to up to two years in advance, as it displays the available dates and clearly states the limits of each stay in accordance with everyone’s co-ownership share and respective rights.
Co-owners are also eligible to acquire shares in multiple vacation homes at diverse locations, and they are free to set the price, trade, and sell their share of each co-owned property when they wish.
New property listings from various areas of Greece are regularly added to the Owners.gr website, with a focus on island properties and Athens, while the business is planning to also complete the sale of six homes in the first year as a business model.