Holiday Property Bond - anyone have any feedback?

[nicecupofteaplease]

Hi

We are considering investing in this but just a bit wary as their website and brochure are very opaque and we are not entirely convinced by it. Essentially it looks to be set up for older couples, but I wanted to see if anyone with a young family has invested and what your experience has been.

I'm guessing that you wouldn't get very much for a family of 5 during school holidays compared to what you could afford as a retired couple who could book holidays outside peak times. Hopefully I'm wrong!

Does anyone have a copy of a points chart they would be willing to share? It's not on their website, nor in the brochure you send off for (which looks just like a hard copy of the website with lovely photos but zero financial info - I just find it a bit odd when they're trying to encourage you to invest thousands of pounds not to be more transparent)

Thanks in advance

We met some bond holders whilst we were in Spain last month - they raved about it and wondered if we were bond holders too. They were retired and said the standard of the accommodation was great and they have been to lots of the sites. I thought the biggest downside was the relatively limited number of countries they have on offer.

We've been Members of 7 years investing about £40k attracted by the sophisticated in perpetuity financial structure, the breadth and standard of the properties and not having to buy and maintain a flipping holiday home

I've read several blogs on this site and can confirm
(i) that it's totally legit to quote my kids. Properties are all good and/or magnificent; some are in sensational venues like Turunc in Turkey - Sky Trossachs and Hilguy in Brittany but it is not Club 18-30 or even Club Med so no discos and you will have to transport teens to party venues. However you are saving so much money that you can afford it.

(ii) some of the properties are older so smaller kitchens no dishwashers etc some are newer and more luxurious.
(iii) the former are cheaper in terms of points need to book a week, and the latter more points hungry. Makes sense.
(iv) in the larger properties during the school hols of course there are plenty of kids around.
(v) my subjective comment is that there is a (perfectly harmless but) pretentious & bourgouis element to the whole thing - you are addressed & referred to repeatedly & ubiquitously as "Bond Holders" and there's undoubtedly a retirees bent to the whole thing. Very respectable but not sexy. If you invest enough money you can take friends and make your own party !

Hope that helps

Been a bondholder for several years- joined up when eldest was small because we were fed up with rentals that cost a lot and were not safe for babies/toddlers. Had loads of great holidays-not every bondholder is retired! Been great for the kids as they grew up - in school hols there are loads of others for them to play with. You do need to be organised to book for school hols. We had no hard sell when they called on us at home by appointment. I would suggest that if you want to know something just ask them!

This is an interesting thread. We dithered about HPB for years - it had been on our radar for ages, but like some folk on here we were apprehensive about the upfront investment. OH and I have always considered ourselves 'free spirits' and enjoyed independent holidays.

But we took the plunge at the end of last year and put a modest sum in HPB, with a view to finding out if it would meet our expectations. The children have left home now, so we have some additional flexibility to travel.

Surprisingly, in six months we've managed to stay at 8 different properties on short breaks - 7 in the UK and one in Spain - all at short notice, without using any points. We've booked a trip to La Gomera in the autumn using points. The website is good and you can check availability at any time, see what is available points-free and book online. Alternatively, you can speak to somebody on the phone at the reservation centre in Newmarket.

Hugely impressed so far and wonder why we waited so long - the kids would have loved it when they were younger. The standard of accommodation is high, likewise the facilities and the staff. Housekeeping has been excellent, and you can say whether you like duvets or sheets and blankets on the beds. Whilst we feel we now know exactly what to expect in terms of quality; the locations we've been to have been fascinating - a mixture of historic and newer places. The sites all have facilities for children, and the bigger ones appear to be especially well equipped from what we've seen to date.

On the whole it appears senior management within HPB plough a lot of money back into upgrading and refurbishing the accommodation, without visibly skimping on anything. The financial side of things is a tad complex, but with a 30 years+ track record and still growing, they must be doing something right. And because 'Bondholders' have a financial stake, they tend to treat the properties with a lot of respect.

How much you choose to spend on a holiday is a bit like 'how long is a piece of string'. HPB is not particularly cheap, but in my opinion it is good value for money.

No regrets and looking forward to taking the family with us soon.

My parents and PIL are bond holders, the bonds will be passed on to us eventually and we are named on the bonds so could use their points. My parents use most of their points to take one of my siblings' families away for a week in school holidays, then they travel short notice /points free the rest of the time, using their bond at least 4-5 times a year. PIL use it for ski lodges and we don't get a look in (fair enough) We've stayed in several properties and they have been fantastic, plenty of facilities for families/kids. I would think most bond holders are older/retired, with flexibility to use the points free holidays, and the younger families there are adult children and grandchildren. Both sets of parents are very happy with it.

V v mc

Like a travelling golf club. Lots of 'what you driving now?'convos . But y'know it's always clean, accommodation a good quality, v helpful when you are there . Lots of kids in summer , greyhaired couples rest of the year.

If you want only fools and horses with a fry up don't bother investing. Fantastic facilities and accomadation. 3 generations going to Majorca this week. You pay for what you get. If you can't afford it that's life. Magaluff is closer to the airport

HOLIDAY PROPERTY BOND

I invested in this HPB bond a few years ago after my wife and I attended an open day at one of their sites and was subsequently seduced by their marketing propaganda and high gloss to invest in the bond, much now to our great regret. The marketing blurb espouses that this is a unique idea of being a ‘life assurance bond linked to a portfolio of quality holiday properties which allows its investors to holiday rent free in all its properties for life’. This is simply not true as you are mandated to pay a weekly maintenance charge on every property that is booked along with committing your purchased points. £1 buys you one point and you will require around 15000 points to hire a two bedroom apartment in the summer months in addition to paying around £450 as a weekly maintenance charge on every property. You can hire a very nice apartment or cottage from several reputable companies for around the same amount you have to pay HBP but you have not had to invest a lump sum which you will never see returned if ever you wanted to encash in your ‘so called investment’. Look at Sykes Cottages, Kathy’s Cottages or the NT Cottages to name just a few companies to substantiate the claim I am making.

We have invested 20K about ten years ago and today’s evaluation if I chose to surrender my bond I would lose around 50% of my original investment. Yes, it is quite true that we have had a number of holidays in the meantime but at around £450 maintenance charge a week they have hardly been ‘rent free’. The ‘Life Assurance’ claim is also a bit mythical because it is just words on paper which transpires to be a totally worthless notion. There are also other on-going costs which are paid annually as part of the commitment which you make when you contract. Quite apart from the complex rationale of the points system and the equally mysterious system for calculating your investment on surrender, as a mortal mathematician I am totally mystified how it is all works out. To say that this is an investment in ‘rent free holidays’ is misleading and if this type of affirmation leads you into a contact it is very questionable that this fact has been a misrepresentation and if so could justifiably result in a repudiated contract.

The guys who manage this organisation are very astute individuals to have conceived this ‘modern time share idea’ and to have registered this company in the Isle of Man for obvious reasons are to be commended for their foresight. This initiative has resulted in a very successful portfolio of property which the ordinary Bondholders have contributed totally to, but regrettably reap very few benefits that they are not continually paying for. I wish I would have listened to my gut instinct prior to proceeding with this initiative after being seduced by their persuasive and plausible marketing patter………Proceed with caution if you consider investing, I very much regret doing so.

Avoid HPB at all costs! Whenever a review site broaches HPB, it's immediately hijacked by a rush of fake posters, gushing with joy about its services, all of whom work for this tinpot establishment in Newmarket.

It's an oily set up, from what I hear locally.