Ownership

Group Ownership is our form of second home ownership created to accommodate the varying needs of the part-time homeowner. It combines flexibility and freedom of choice with total security.

Each of the 17 barns and 3 apartments have ten owners who each choose five weeks to suit individual requirements. Our system of rotating priorities each year guarantees complete fairness to each owner by enabling you to plan and vary your chosen weeks from year to year. Two of the weeks are in high season, one is in mid season and the other two are in the remainder of the year. As an owner you can use all or some of your chosen weeks, rent them out directly or more commonly through the resident managers, or through membership of RCI, the international holiday exchange company, exchange your week(s) for a holiday anywhere in the world with a guarantee of similar high quality accommodation to Hope Barton.

Each property has the legal security of a 125 year lease, through its own limited company, which is renewable by the Owners Association who own the total freehold of the buildings and land. As an owner of a share in a cottage you are also a Group Owner of the land, livestock, leisure buildings, and all profits from the farm, catering and other activities which help to reduce the annual cost of upkeep.

All 200 owners of the five week shares in cottages are automatically members of Hope Barton Owners Association Limited, the management company created to run the day to day business of Hope Barton. Appointed by and totally answerable to the Owners Association, the resident management couple are responsible for the monitoring, day to day maintenance of your property, the grounds, and all business operations relating to cottage usage, rentals and sales. The Board of Directors are five owners appointed by the owners on a rotating term of 3 years. The Board provide the direction and support to the management through four board meetings a year. In addition we have an AGM, combined with a social dinner, which is normally attended by over 100 enthusiatic owners.

You can rest assured that your property and your investment is safeguarded in every way. The owners run Hope Barton as they wish without any outside interference from development companies or similar commercial organisations. Our accounts are prepared and kept by the managers, audited independently by chartered accountants and are available in full for inspection by any owner.

Whilst as with any other investments the value of your share can go up or down, since the inception of Hope Barton Barns in 1990 most owners have seen their shares rise in value over the period. The same cannot be said for most timeshare sales.

This investment is for you, your family and their families for many years to come. This investment is in your leisure time and whilst you could rent out some or all of your five weeks each year and earn a good return from this income ( our larger cottages rent out for over £1,500 a week in high season), that is not the manner in which we tend to promote the sale of Hope Barton cottage shares. We want owners and their families to come and share the uniqueness of Hope Barton, its different seasons, the wildlife, the coastal walks - it really is a beautiful part of South Devon.

All the original 200 shares were sold by the end of the development in 1997. Many owners have multiple shares, some up to 20 weeks a year, in the same or different cottages. All our present shares are re-sales from existing owners whose family circumstances may have changed, they may be upgrading to a larger unit or who are now retiring to the area.

Whilst many would attempt to compare our unique group ownership with timeshare, we are distinctly different in our legal structure, our private operation and the protection of your investment by the owners themselves.

We do utilise the positive benefits of timeshare through our affiliation with RCI the international holiday exchange company. Hope Barton has been an RCI Gold Crown resort since 1994, which puts it in the top 10% of RCI's 25,000 resorts worldwide.