Pure WPR (worldwide private residences fund), any takers?

Hi all, got the brochure on Pure's worldwide private residences fund in the post yesterday, and was wondering if anyone else is considering this.

FYI: The WPR fund is a portfolio of 30 high end holiday propertys av. £1.35M, in places like Tuscany, Aspen, Portugal etc. There are 300 investors who get 5 weeks rent free use each year. The fund runs for 10 years.
Personally,on the surface it sounded very tempting, but the returns seem very modest,imo. The main problem is that only 2/3 of your investment goes into bricks and mortar, the rest is an "operational float" and "load fee" and you only get back 70% of any gains on that 2/3rds.
The other thing is that "apparently" since this fund was launched in May in the UK, they have only got 30 investors on board so far. This would tell me that a lot of people who are more financially savvy than me(ie most people!) have looked at this and walked away.

Re: Pure WPR, any takers? Absolutely

D2WW

Thanks for your post. The principal attractions for me in the fund were the value of the usage 50 weeks over 10 years of premium homes and that the monies were protected in a fund structure unlike destination clubs or alternatives like Oyster and hideaways that I reviewed and quickly discounted.

The returns in isolation from the usage are fairly modest but if the fund value grows by 3.5% p.a I will have had 10 years of usage + 100% of my money back and if it averages 7% I will get a 200% return - it might not be stellar but I think its pretty good.

Talking of the May launch - I am not sure of the to date numbers as its school hols but given July and August are a write off and therefore half of June the numbers you suggested sound not bad and probably about right. Its a new product in the market and as properties are bought in stages with each 10 investors it will become more appealing as time goes on.

Why invest now then? I get some personal usage before the fund closes and the 10 years start and it was a bit cheaper.

Obviously its not for everyone though.

Re: Pure WPR, any takers?

Sarah J,
I was using rough annual costs of opportunity costs of 240K euro @4.5% is 10,800, adding running costs of 8,250 is 19,000 or 3800/week. This might be ok if you could gaurantee use during peak times(Summer), but 300 investors into 30 properties doesn't go.

Re: Pure WPR, any takers?

D2WW

I understand your point with regard to the costs. However if you are applying the interest on the capital as an opportunity cost then you cannot also spend it? The combination of the properties allows for winter skiing, winter sun, summer sun, year round destinations like New York. Given the quality of the properties you would certainly be spending 3800 a week + in my experience. Furthermore Irish school holidays are different to UK and from my understanding there are also a number of corporate and retiree purchasers who will also not be looking at peak times like school holidays.

In the end it comes down to personal choice I guess and I am confident that at the end of 10 years I will have saved the headache of holidays and show a profit on my investment - of course I may not as the stock markets have shown this week nothing is guaranteed.

Sarah J ,
Do you have any association with this or any other property organisations we should know about?
aj

No

Aj, No I don't have any connections with Pure or any other Property Co. Only saw their ad on the back the ST.

Sarah J,
Best of luck with your decision, as you say it's a new product on the market, so I think that I will wait for the next one to come along.
d2ww