Fractional ownership is where several people share the ownership of a real estate asset such as a vacation home, a house or a condo. Unlike other forms of shared use that provide rights to possess or use but don’t bestow ownership, each person participating in fractional ownership actually owns a portion of the property.

It started with a gentleman called Richard Santulli, who had this brilliant idea of investing in fractions or shares to own a private aeroplane, so that instead of completely owning the entire plane and actually having to bare the huge maintenance costs, the large companies were approached and invested in different number of fractions and share the plane together with maintenance costs, which made the cost lower and more manageable. The companies didn’t need to use the plane for the whole year, but had to pay huge costs in maintenance that came together with complete ownership. Fractional ownership became the perfect plan for the companies and later became accessible to individual people.

Fractional ownership later became more popular because it now grew to holiday and investment property. It has become the most popular way for people to now invest in vacation homes at a fraction of the cost and enjoy multiple holiday and investment opportunities.

Each owner has a direct share in the property, and the value of that share changes as the asset appreciates or depreciates. Furthermore, each fractional owner has a say in what happens to the asset and how it is used.

Fractional ownership can take several different forms, including:

• JOINT TENANCY, which gives everyone involved equal interest in and rights to a property
• TENANCY IN COMMON, which gives each owner a partial interest in the property

Fractional ownership is most often applied to Real Estate (Vacation Homes) but it can be used to purchase many sorts of property, including:

• Yachts, boats and ships (merchant and cruise ships)
• Recreational vehicles (luxury cars)
• Aircraft (private Jets)