Property, needless to say, is both a safe-haven asset for many investors and essential to the luxury lifestyle of HNW individuals. This publication recently interviewed The Hideaways Club about its offering.

Property is a long favoured asset by Asian investors – it is considered a safe haven for wealth and is also essential to the high-flying lifestyle of the region’s high net worth individuals. Spotting Asia’s penchant for real estate and luxury, The Hideaways Club hopes to make headway in the East. The firm offers two funds that not only provide usage of multiple top-notch homes, but also the bonus of actually owning a share of these properties. Who says work and play can’t be combined?

“Members of The Hideaways Club all have something in common: they’re savvy investors, have a passion for luxurious properties in exclusive locations around the world, yet very little time to allocate to holiday planning,” said co-founder and chief executive of The Hideaways Club, Stephen Wise in an interview with WealthBriefingAsia.

The private holiday club presents a unique way to own a part of a global property portfolio, enabling members to holiday in a variety of different locations.

This is not a timeshare, Wise explained: “The typical timeshare does not offer any opportunity to share future growth in the value of the property. Nor does a timeshare offer any security for the investment or any real ownership of the underlying properties.”

The way it works is that individuals invest in one of the Hideaways’ funds to own a share of the various featured properties and then they also sign up to club membership to “purchase” nights in the properties, depending on the size of the fund contribution. Wise said it is not really intended for investors seeking high returns, advising that the scheme is most suited to those who actually want to use the exclusive properties. “It’s more a lifestyle choice,” he added.

That said, in the long run the firm expects the average return “to match the average growth in property prices across the portfolio - likely to be in the region of 4-6 per cent per annum,” according to Wise.

The funds

The properties are divided into two collections: The Classic Collection comprises 40 luxury villas and ski chalets across South East Asia, South Africa, Mauritius and Europe. And the City Collection includes 15 top-end apartments in some of the most exciting cities around the globe, such as: Singapore, Paris, New York, Miami, Berlin, Dubai and London.

Access to additional homes is offered by exchange arrangements with similar worldwide clubs and funds, including The Banyan Tree in Asia. This increases the usage for the villa fund to 250 properties and the city fund to 70 apartments.

The Hideaways team pinpoints which properties to purchase based on advice from real estate experts, including Savills, Knight Frank and Chestertons, and client preferences: “Our choices of locations are down to where our members want to spend their time visiting, where we think there are good investment opportunities and where we think long term values will grow,” said Wise.

Wise started investing in properties in 2006, establishing the company in the UK two years later. Around the same time, he started to get a sense for Asia’s burgeoning wealth and taste for real estate, prompting him to set up here at the end of 2009.

The club now has more than 420 members, of which approximately 25 per cent are Asia-based. Presently for the firm, Asia is the region growing at the fastest pace.

“We always thought that Asia would be a good location for us. The lifestyle that many residents live lends itself to a Hideaways membership,“ said Wise.

Client profile

The Club seeks to bring in as broad a mix of member as it can. “We have bankers, lawyers, accountants, entrepreneurs and a handful of celebrities,” Wise said.

He described the club’s Asian investors as predominantly high net worth males between 25-44, based in Hong Kong and Singapore. “They’re generally frequent flyers who spend a lot on holidays, mainly with their family, and appreciate the variety of winter holiday options. They’re modest investors who do not invest in properties exclusively for the returns but own a lot of properties principally for the lifestyle benefit.”

Proximity to key locations, free internet access and price are the most important factors for choosing accommodation. “If you break it down by geography, Hong Kong travellers want business facilities, room service and private chef. Singapore travellers are looking for a gym and proximity to the airport.  Both groups like the fact that The Hideaways Club offers a fully managed property portfolio with excellent customer service and the fact that the fund is held in the UK in British pounds,” said Wise.

Learning curve

The minimum investment entry points range from $100,000 to $400,000, depending on which fund and how many holiday nights per year are required by the investor. Wise said he is still on a learning curve and kept on his toes by his investment-savvy clients, prompting him to reconsider the membership structure. 

For example, nights in properties are not tiered according to locations so investors could choose 10 nights in Mauritius or 10 nights in Bangkok for the same contribution to the fund/membership – this sees homes in the generally more affordable destinations, like Bangkok, being more vacant than the prime spots. “It’s something we’re working on,” said Wise.

He is also learning that Asian investors have different preferences and require "adapted ways of operating", compared to European markets. For instance, Asian investors often already own homes in exotic destinations such as Thailand and Indonesia, so the city fund is more appealing to them.

Growth

Most of the marketing for The Hideaways Club comes through word of mouth from existing clients. And the firm’s ambassador and member, tennis star Tim Henman also puts the brand in the limelight now and again. Like many luxury service providers, Wise hope to liaise with more wealth managers who have a high net worth client base that would potentially buy into the Hideaways concept. He has already worked with big names such as UBS and Barclays, and has Coutts on the radar too.

With regards to his team in the East, Wise said: “We have numerous people working with us in Asia. We have an operations director to oversee our properties, we have numerous concierges actively managing our portfolio and we have business directors in Hong Kong and Singapore looking after our members’ interests.”  

Does he plan to grow his presence in the region in the near future? “The answer is definitely. Both funds are growing quickly. As the funds grow we add more properties proportionately. We also need to add more staff to look after the bigger portfolios and number of members. For example, in recent months our new apartments in Bangkok opened, and a villa in Lembongan, Bali was opened late last year,” Wise said.

Better start booking that annual leave.