A luxury villa in Formentera has been sold on the basis of eight shares, each worth 345,000 euros. The real-estate agency Vivla, which has been dealing with the sale, says that "great growth in the co-ownership of high-end houses in Spain is expected, as it is the principal European market for second holiday homes".
Under the agreement, each co-owner is guaranteed exclusive use of the villa for a minimum of six weeks a year, two of these in the main summer season. Management and maintenance of the property are the responsibility of the real-estate agency. The villa has three bedrooms and three bathrooms plus an outdoor bathroom.
Carlos Gómez of Vivla says that co-ownership "fulfils the dream of a segment of the market which, despite having significant savings to spend on the purchase of a second residence for holiday use, did not have access to this type of property until now because of the high price".
There has recently been controversy in Mallorca because of an advert for a villa in Santa Ponsa which stated that, "for legal reasons", it was only available to German citizens. The price for the luxury property was 325,800 euros. Due to "an error", the advert didn't specify that this was the price for a one-eighth share. The German-based agency that is marketing the property explained that the advert was only aimed at German citizens "for tax purposes". As ownership would be divided among eight people, it was a formula that would be incompatible with co-owners of different nationalities.