Membership Cost. A share in the group is priced at €392,000. This acquires 14.285% of the shares in a Jersey, UK, limited liability company that was established in 1990 solely to own the villa. There are no additional costs associated with this transfer.  The costs of administering the group and running the company in compliance with Spanish, Jersey and British law are included in the annual group budget of approximately €59,000.  Full details of the budget items are included in the Information Package supplied to applicants. Each owner's share will be one-seventh of this, and is paid monthly by standing order to a dedicated group bank account administered by the OwnerGroups Company. This is expected to be €700 (approx £550) per month and allows for creation of a reserve fund for future maintenance, improvements etc. as determined by the members. It includes utilities   Future budgets and subscriptions are decided by the members themselves at an Annual Meeting.

How the Share price of the Villa Maricel group was determined.  This was based on the best available information about current real estate values. Several of the best-known real estate brokers were asked to recommend a realistic market value to sell the entire property, and the results for a sale without agents fees were averaged to reach the base price for a group organisation. We believe this makes a share in Villa Maricel truly excellent value as it would be the least expensive first line villa over 300 m2 on the market in SW of Mallorca. The cost of the additional facilities (boat, car etc) was added, plus the cost of setting up the group arrangements. These are considerably less than the combined cost of estate agents fees plus the normal legal transfer charges. The result was used to determine the share purchase price. This is not negotiable, and we do not believe a comparable deal exists anywhere in the Balearics or indeed any resort area worldwide.   

Value for money. We believe that membership of the Villa Maricel owners group is the most cost-effective way possible to achieve personal usage of such luxurious holiday facilities. There are four basic ways to pay for part-time enjoyment of a high cost asset such as a luxury villa. These are by outright (sole) purchase, and by three shared methods: as a timeshare, by commercial fractional ownership, or through a private group share such as this.

• Outright Purchase is the simplest form of purchase. You go out, find what you are looking for and buy it. You then have 100% control of how and when you use it, along with 100% of the costs and responsibilities.
• In a Timeshare, you buy the right to use accommodation in an existing property.  You are restricted to a specific time of use, have no title to the actual property, and have no influence over costs or other users. Typically full time use of a timeshare property would cost about 3 times the value of that property, but give you no real ownership of it. Versions of timeshare also include various "bond" schemes in which capital is tied into a collective set of assets, with buyers having a range of occupation rights.
• With Fractional Ownership, a developer sells shares in individual buildings, usually on a resort complex. You own title to the real estate but the conditions of purchase and rules governing usage are laid down by the developer. Your usage is usually either based on on some form of "rota" although you can swap with other owners, or by purchase rights to specific weeks with differential pricing. You have little influence over running costs or other users. 
• Then there is Private group ownership, such as this group.

Private groups versus other shared ownership schemes. The private group has major cost and user advantages over other "shared" schemes, and in fact we do not consider timeshare or similar "holiday clubs" to be a form of ownership in any real sense. More appropriate comparison is with commercial fractional schemes which may require a comparable capital investment. A private group allows you full control over the assets, simply splitting the purchase price between all members of your group. You then have full control of when you use your share through our free choice "bidding" system. All costs are completely controlled by and shared amongst the group members. All assets are acquired at the open market price, eliminating the expensive marketing organisations of timeshare and fractional developers, the requirement to  construct and service extensive resort facilities, and the financing costs of the resort developers, all of which must be paid for together with the organisation's substantial margin. Smaller fractional schemes based on single properties rather than resorts usually load a premium of 20 to 50% of the property value into the price of each share. Finally, of course the members of the villa group have the right to dissolve it and sell the property outright on the open market should they so desire. It is difficult to envisage a situation where owners in any commercial fractional scheme could effectively do the same.   

Individual purchase. To compare this group scheme with outright sole purchase, simply look at what similar capital will acquire. A quick web search will show that a capital budget of €392,000 to acquire property in this area breaks down as approximately €340,000 property price, €34,000 transfer costs, and €18,000 for furnishing and set-up costs. A typical purchase in Santa Ponsa might be a 2 Bedroom sea view apartment on a front line complex such as that shown left. Comparing the features of this with Villa Maricel is interesting:

Unless having 100% control of and access to the property is vital to you, there appears to be little comparison to be made in terms of facilities per unit of capital. 

For another way of looking at the value for money, go to our Value Calculator page.

"Buy it and Rent". Many individuals buy property with the idea that short term holiday rentals will cover most if not all of their running costs, and allow them "free" holidays. This may prove harder to achieve than anticipated. Even if successful, all rental incomes must be declared to the local government. Additionally, only villas or fincas can apply for the holiday rental let short term licence which is required to rent legally. An apartment such as could be bought for the same capital as a Villa Maricel share do not qualify for this, and there is still a great deal of controversy over short lets and the legal implications with the local government which is becoming more concerned about this, under pressure from local commercial interests. Consequently, short term holiday rentals may prove illusory as a reliable source of income. 

Investment and appreciation. This issue is covered in our Value Calculator page, where you can see the effect of various assumptions about property values etc.