The newest, and arguably most elegant European co-ownership platform, founded in 2020, is August. The development of their first collection was completed at the end of summer, 2022, and all five homes purchased are already being enjoyed by the August co-owners.
August offers potential owners the chance to buy into collections of European properties. This means, simply, the potential member may co-own homes in multiple destinations, such as Paris, Barcelona, Tuscany, Provence, and the French Alps to name just a few. The August Collection offers different tiers, from the Pied-a-Terre, a collection of city residences, to Signature, Premium, and the newest, Prime collection. The different tiers are defined by the size of the homes, from two bedrooms to five bedrooms, the quality of the destination, bespoke features and amenities associated with the home.
With Pied-a-Terre the share price of €340,000, with annual fee of €8,600, gives you an ownership share of 5 homes, with an average price per home €1,250,000
The original August Collection, Signature, has a share price of €425,000 with an annual fee of €10,500. The homes have 3-4 bedrooms and an average price per home of €1,500,000.
With Premium the share price of €680,000 with annual fee of €16,800, gives you an ownership share of five, 4-5 bedroom homes with an average price per home of €2,500,000.
The three collections above are now live, and August has just introduced Prime, at €1,500,000 per share. The Prime collection will be comprised of 16 shares, with four properties in the south of France, Tuscany, the French Alps and Mallorca. The average price per Prime home will be €5,500,000.
Compared to owning a single vacation home, the co-owners of a collection, co-own five, and not one residence, meaning the family can diversify vacation options, between city, country, ski, or beach residences depending on the co-owners vacation wants and needs. This destination divergence opens opportunities to August’s more globalized co-owner communities, to experience vacation variety with their families and friends.
Renovation & Design
But there is something else, another differentiator, beyond the elegant homes with the potential of memorable family time, that further defines the nature of August’s holiday legacy. August has a committed vision to refurbishing, repurposing, and renovating homes to eventually become part of the collection, taking a sustainable approach, an idea often unfamiliar to others in the fractional, co-ownership field in Europe.
As many successful co-ownership, fractional platforms do in both the US and Europe, they buy properties, decorate, and fractionalize. But with August, they move a step further: their teams, all have extensive renovation expertise but members are also hired for restoration and recycling insights. This repurposing and recycling know-how from the design team, may involve taking an old door and turning it into a dining table, or refurbishing original tiles, creating new patinas on well-used, and well-loved wood, and opening hidden fireplaces. All this restoration and repurposing allows August to retain the original character and underlying vision of the original home, creating a space that captures the spirit of destination with culture as well. Their residences are often also curated with original antiques and artwork, allowing each residence to be works, in themselves, of exploratory art and artisanry.
An excellent example of an August residence is one located 10 minutes away from the village of Tourrette’s-Sur-Loup, in Provence, southeastern France, situated near Vence and Grasse (pictured above). It is a charming hill top town, with medieval roots, that is just 14 miles (9 km) from the coast.
Tourrettes-Sur-Loup is also known for its annual violet festival in March, where the the village is decorated with violets, mimosa, and other flowers, with the local cafés and restaurants providing edible violet specialties for the weekend. Traditionally there is a parade of flower-covered floats in the afternoon which culminates in a Battle of the Flowers - the riders of the floats pull all the flowers off and toss them to the crowd. The August home is nearby, and exudes a sense of refined history, never ignoring the original historic charm of the home. This refinement includes areas for indoor formal gatherings or celebratory feasts, and outside, with the poolside outdoor kitchen, the gatherings become part of the garden, essential to the outdoor landscape.
In addition to purchasing, renovating, and doing the interior designs, August maintains, and manages the homes for co-owners. And with five unique holiday homes, August’s homeowners have guaranteed access to homes for an average of 12 weeks per year. Reservations are made using a points system, so that owners who prefer to travel in off-peak seasons may spend even more time at the homes.
The Premium Collection, as examples, has homes in Mallorca, the French Alps, the Cotswolds, Tuscany, and the South of France. At this tier, there are 5 homes, with four or five bedrooms, and shares are priced from 680,000 Euro, for 1/21 share. The additional annual fee covers items like property taxes, insurance costs, gardening/maintenance costs, wifi, legal/accounting costs and more.
Interestingly, according to August’s CEO, Melie Dunod, many of the new owners often own or have owned second homes, and thus, see value in August’s vision. As she said in a recent interview, "We have homes that owners realize would be difficult to manage on their own, and they appreciate the time saved - they do not have to spend their precious vacation time managing cleaning and maintenance teams. If something needs maintenance, we take care of it.”
With The August Collection, times slows, as gathering and solitary places are used, allowing family and friends to share, disperse, then share again, as the luxury and legacy of the August vacation evolves.
