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Those of us who are involved with the fractional ownership industry obviously have very high hopes for it – the model makes such good sense for a property-buying public which has had its fingers burned while dipping in to the whole ownership market that, if done properly and scrupulously, it is hard to see why fractional ownership shouldn't blossom into a huge global industry.

But there are still plenty of nay-sayers and pessimists, even within the industry. I often hear people say that the market is dead: "Nobody is spending money", "We'll launch when the economy recovers", "The timeshare people will ruin fractional" etc etc. There are no end of excuses not to be brave and get involved.

As John Lennon once said: "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." And while the timid are sitting on the fence, the brave are rolling their sleeves up and launching new projects. In the last couple of months alone, Fractional Trade and our sister site Fractional Life have reported on new or recently launched fractional property developments in the following countries: (deep breath) The US, Greece, Madeira, Mozambique, the UK (Scotland, Cornwall), Hawaii, Bali, Mexico, Grenada, Dominican Republic, Canada, Bermuda, Cyprus, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Bermuda, Holland and Thailand.

And in the same period there have been well-researched and credible reports into the huge potential for fractional real estate in Australia and New Zealand; Brazil and the Middle East.

At Fractional Life we are launching new b2b fractional real estate conferences in Miami and Abu Dhabi, because we believe in the market and want to help it grow however we can.

These are not, to me anyway, signs that the market is dead. To me, they say that the market is full of promise and should be talked up at every available opportunity. Let's put our vested interests aside and promote the fractional ownership model generically whenever possible – there is a ridiculously large number of potential buyers out there who don't even know what it is! I often speak to intelligent, well-informed people who either haven't heard of fractional or have a distorted view of what it is.

Fractional ownership is going global, even if you are making other plans, so why not be a part of it and spread the word?

George Sell

Editor, Fractional Trade and Fractional Life

george@fractionallife.com