Holiday Property Bond

Alhambra_2 · 6 February 2008 at 11:58AM

We joined the Holiday Property Bond in 1999 and have just recently cashed in the bond, which was straight forward and we were pleasantly surprised at the valuation, even though it was some £1750 less that we had invested.

We had some great holidays in clean, well-presented and equipped accommodation in both the UK and abroad and I could not fault it.

However, many of the better located properties on sites are booked in advance year on year by the same people making tham unavailable to others, also some of the very early members do not pay a weekly user charge, they get the property free.

The bond allocates points based on your investment and this determines what and when you can book, on top of that you pay a weekly user charge for each property to cover the operating costs etc.- this charge is adjusted annually.

Now, why we cashed in our bond.

Our daughter has left home now and we had £13000.00 tied up with HPB and used the accommodation two or three times a year, usually having between 3 & 4 weeks holiday and paying a user charge of 3 - 4 x £275.00 - £275.00 is about the lowest of the weekly user charges.

The user charge does not include any catering or other services and we found that we can book similar appartments, or hotels in the same resorts for a similar price, plus we get flexibilty of travel, usually breakfast and I can use the money invested for other things.

I had always had some concerns about the investment, with regard to user charges, members who don't pay them, accessing all of the accommodation and the policy of the development of sole sites like La Gomera.

If you have the cash that you can afford to leave and are prepared to take the "interest" in holidays then HPB is for you, but bear in mind that whilst you are receiving superb holiday accommodation you are also paying a user charge for each week that you occupy a property and this should be factored in when making your decision whether or not to invest.

I hope this helps.

countersett · 14 February 2008 at 11:30AM

HPB is a totally different experience to the usual 'timeshare'. We've had rich experience of both! HPB is an excellent concept, excellently managed. The investment you make takes the form of a life insurance policy - redeemable and disposible. The investments are made in property (which are used to provide very high calibre holiday accommodation. Your investment is represented by points, which you can use at any of the propertires at any time of year. Obviously the larger properties in peak season require more points. All in all it is a brilliant scheme.countersett.

helenJ_3 · 28 February 2008 at 1:11PM

My parents friends have been with HPB for a few years my parents have gone along with them a few times. I am all for this way of taking holidays as you know what you'll get every time. I'm not sure the HPB properties are for me as I think it probably suits older people more. My parents are thinking of joining a holiday club called GYH which is similar to HPB in the sense that you can choose from a good selection of holidays, but is a little more up market. It is not claiming to be an investment but offers holidays for life ranging from beach to ski and even safari apparently... I encouraged them to opt for this as you only have a one off payment, and no other charges to use the properties at all. This means that when my parents get a bit older and may not have so much ready cash, they'll still get their holidays in every year. Sounds great to me as I'll be able to use them too ;-) Does anyone know of GHY or even used them who can advise further?

Ginger_Ninja_5 · 15 March 2008 at 1:19PM

My parents have an investment in HPB with them as proposers and myself and brother named as lives assured in addition to them. I'm trying to get my head around the arrangements as they aren't using their points allocations now and I wonder if the money tied up in HPB could be better used elsewhere.

The properties available don't appeal as much to remaining (much younger) members of the family as we tend to go for alternative sorts of holidays so we're unlikely to benefit from the points available.

My brother and I don't really need more life assurance and the life assurance payments to my parents are so trivial (sliding scale decreasing with age to 0.5% over 75) that this isn't a consideration but I am assuming that their stake will pass to their estates with the remaining lives assured still going. If there is capital gain and they don't really need the money then we'll probably keep it but if not then it would seem the stake could be better used elsewhere.

A few questions that I haven't easily found from the small print or their website and wondered if anyone here could answer before I make a formal appraoch to HPB.

1) Simply, how much is a stake worth? I can find that you'd get the 'bond's then unit value" on redemption but I can't see how much this is. Each pound of investment is advertised as giving a point and the number of points that they have annually seems to have gone up so maybe a unit is a point is a pound but I can't see this specifically written anywhere.

2) There is a small print option of taking a cash payment currently 2.5%, capped at 5% in lieu of using points but this isn't a great return unless there is capital gain happening too. Does anyone have experience of doing this or can anyone explain the capital situation?

Thanks to one and all for any suggestions.

GrassInTheSky · 4 June 2008 at 1:57PM

1. Each point is worth around 75p and is priced daily. Today's value is 77.7pence.

2. Never had to cash in any points in 18 years because they are such good value and always use them. The "capital" remains untouched, if that is what you are concerned about. There is no capital gain. The points are there to be used the following year.

You could always hang on to the points - maybe when you are older you will enjoy the quality of the properties, the sports facilities, the locations etc etc.

Sam_Bee · 4 June 2008 at 2:36PM

I'm not being funny, well maybe I am, but is it really odd for the last7 messages (and others) all to be positive, all to be from new members, and all to be added today?

Not being negative, just find it weird, like.

Warrington-Mike · 4 June 2008 at 2:40PM

Have stayed with freinds in a property (a castle!) in the trossocks in Scotland. was excellent accommodation very clean and well maintained.

Bit expensive for my liking, and boy when they have your name on the list, they never give up on you!

terryw · 4 June 2008 at 2:41PM

Sam_Bee wrote: »

I'm not being funny, well maybe I am, but is it really odd for the last7 messages (and others) all to be positive, all to be from new members, and all to be added today?

Not being negative, just find it weird, like.

Yes, it is just like an episode of "The Twilight Zone".

If it looks like a duck and goes quack and tastes good with orange sauce, then it probably is a duck.

terryw

terryw · 5 June 2008 at 4:25PM

What has happened to the newbies from yesterday who extolled the virtues of this concern.

It has gone deathly quiet today.........it's like the Mary Celeste.

terryw

Sam_Bee · 5 June 2008 at 4:45PM

The problem they have now is that if you enter Holiday Property Bond into Google, this thread comes up at number 3, so you're going to have a peak if you are looking into investing right? And it's in their interest for this thread to make them look rosy right?

Holiday Property Bond

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