Housing: Hotel-Condos

This hotel-condo hybrid is becoming very popular around the US. Basically, you can purchase a unit in a Four Seasons, for example, and when you are not using it, they can rent it out...and you can get about 45% of the income.

The media has been all over this in the last couple of weeks. Check out the USA Today article, this Chicago Tribune/Times Argus article.

The prices for these units are much higher than if you purchased a similar sized unit in the same city, and I believe that maintenance fees apply for when you are occupying the room (I imagine to cover your linen service, breakfast and other hotel services). People are buying them for the potential investment income, and the services.

With this business model the hotels are sharing some of the investment risk/burden with the private investors.

Technorati tags: Hotels, Housing, Condos