Share Acre - Co-ownership of Second Homes in India
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Note: Share Acre is no longer in business and closed.
Many of us dream to own a holiday home. Who would not love to buy a farmhouse near the beach or amidst the greenery of a hill station? If you are also one who has been planning to purchase a second home in a dream location, but the hassle of finding a suitable property, shortage of fund and the fear of the lengthy legal formalities is deterring you, then there is good news for you.
Share Acre, a Mumbai based startup brought the concept of co-ownership of second homes in India. Share Acre lets you co-own your second home and even rent and sell it if required.
Share Acre - Company Highlights
| Startup Name | Share Acre |
|---|---|
| Headquarter | Mumbai |
| Founders | Vivan Puri, Nirbhay Bakshi and Udai Chawla |
| Sector | Real Estate |
| Founded | 2018 |
| Parent Organization | Shared Acre Solutions Private Limited |
About Share Acre
Second Home Industry in India
Share Acre - Founders
How was Share Acre Started
Share Acre - Name, Tagline and Logo
What is Share Acre
Share Acre - Launching Startup
Share Acre - Revenue Model
Share Acre - Funding and Investors
Share Acre - Startup Challenges
Share Acre - Competitors
Share Acre - Advisors and Mentors
Share Acre - Growth
About Share Acre
Share Acre is a real estate startup founded in 2018. ShareAcre allows two or more like-minded people to come together and split the cost and CO-OWN a second home to use, rent and eventually sell. This enables the customers to purchase a fully furnished and professionally maintained second home at a fraction of the total cost. Besides, Share Acre lists only curated and vetted listings and provides all services associated with buying, like legal and financial services, making the process super simple.
Share Acre is driven by the vision of becoming a major player in the Indian market for second homes, by radically transforming the way of buying and selling vacation properties via fractional ownership.
Second Home Industry in India
Share Acre operates in the second home market (real estate sector). In the year 2014, as per HinduBusinessLine, 1.3 million second homes were sold in India. This market is been growing at a rate of 10-12% in sales. In absolute terms, the growth registered by the vacation home segment in 2014 was 57 percent over the year 2013. Â
With  rise in the buyer confidence, we believe that the second home market will see growth rates similar to the year 2014. Moreover, as India continues to prosper and incomes see to rise, being that a majority of second home buyers are in the upper-income segment, we can see further growth in this market. Â
A major hurdle for the second home market remains that it is perceived to cater to only the upper-middle income class, due to the high ticket prices for premium luxury homes, thus restricting and constraining its market reach. However, with the introduction and expansion of fractional ownership, as introduced by Share Acre, lowering ticket prices, for both usage and investment, and providing of various other services, growth in this sector is likely to aggressively accelerate in the coming five years.
Shubham Kumar
Share Acre Founders
Vivan Puri, Nirbhay Bakshi, and Udai Chawla are the founders of Share Acre.
Vivan Puri is a graduate of New York University. He saw the popularity of second home concept or co-ownership of a second home in foreign countries and wanted to introduce the concept in India.
Nirbhay Bakshi graduated from O. P. Jindal Law School, on a full scholarship, with a BA. LLB degree in 2018. He worked in corporate law at the Banking and Finance team of ELP, Mumbai. His parents were on the lookout for a second home, and Nirbhay was well aware of the problems associated with finding one. So when the idea of starting Share Acre came up, looking at the immense potential it had, he left his job to join the founding team of Share Acre.
Udai Chawla graduated in 2017 from Drexel University with a bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. He worked for Sotheby's and subsequently, BPTP (a real estate firm in New Delhi). While working at these firms he realized that the customer buying experience has a void and the real estate market has rising prices, without alternate ways of ownership. This is the reason, he became a part of Share Acre.
Gorish Dua
How was Share Acre Started
Fractional ownership or co-ownership of second homes is a concept adopted around the world and has allowed people a more efficient, cost-effective and accessible way to own second homes. Vivan always had a keen interest in the second home sector, as it was an excellent option from both lifestyle and investment perspective.
However, he observed that in India there was no company providing the service of co-ownership of second homes. He discussed the concept with his friends, family and colleagues, and realized that owning a piece of property is a universal desire and a second home is an aspiration for many in India. He was confident that offering curated, fully furnished and well-managed properties with co-ownership options will be well suited for India.
To make things easier, along with the property he further thought of offering services required while purchasing a property like legal and financial services. Share Acre started operating from 2018.
Share Acre - Name, Tagline, and Logo
The startup was named Share Acre, as the name conveys the concept of co-owning in real estate.
We are the proud owners of over 50 domain names, which we bought while trying to come up with a name.
The company's tag line, 'Fractional Realty, A Reality', conveys the company's mission of helping Indian’s realize their aspirations of owning a second home. Â
What is Share Acre
Share Acre takes care of all the aspects required for owning a second home. It selects the best of property, takes care of interior designing, manages and maintains the property, does rental management, assists in resale and takes care of all the documentation and execution matters. The company is also creating a platform and unique dashboard that helps buyers use their property like never before.
There is a dilemma with any buyer of a second home; they want to purchase a second home to improve their lifestyle, as a status symbol, to have a break from the city life or as an investment. However on the flipside they do not want to incur heavy costs or have the additional responsibility of maintenance. Furthermore, by its very nature, a second home is used only a fraction of the time. The property lies vacant while the buyer still must pay the maintenance cost. With Share Acre, assuming 4 buyers, each buyer is able to enjoy 90 days in the property ensuring equal access during season days, weekends and bank holidays, all managed through a property manager and an online management portal provided by Share Acre. Â This allows buyers, via their property manager, to rent out their share of days and earn rental income while splitting the cost of maintenance and other recurring costs.
Therefore, Share Acre enables any such aspirational buyer to enjoy the benefits of owning a second home for up to just one-fourth of the total property value and without the additional responsibilities of maintenance and management.
A major issue with buying second homes is that it requires research, site visits and legal checks. Currently, there is no other platform focused on curated listings. Share Acre lists properties only after a thorough legal and financial due diligence and after conducting site visits and discussions. Furthermore, all the listings have pre-negotiated all-inclusive prices, that include the property cost, stamp duty, GST, cost of full furnishing, first-year maintenance and a security deposit. Thereby, showing buyers the actual and total cost of the property. Another Share Acre advantage is that it does not charge any brokerage from the buyers. Â
An expense that buyers have to incur is the huge brokerage fees, often as much as 3% of the property value, which translates to lakhs of Rupees. We on the other hand charge no brokerage from the buyer, while also providing an end to end service platform, which means we provide assistance in the purchase, documentation, interior design and property management. Â
Chayanika Goswami
Share Acre - Launching Startup
Work for developing the product began in 2017. The Share Acre team spent months ensuring all legal compliances and creating the co-ownership documents that would best protect the customers’ rights. For this Share Acre tied up with one of the best law firms in India, Desai and Diwanji.
Share Acre also associated with a renowned chartered accountancy firm, N.A Shah Associates LLP, for creating a tool to analyze investment value in properties. The team spent months scouting for the best properties across India and tying up with developers. To take care of the interiors it joined hands with SiCiDi Architecture, a leading architecture company, which has a client list including Amitabh Bachan and Priyanka Chopra. After putting all this in place and the offering prepared, Share Acre went live in 2019 and the services became accessible to buyers. Â
To take care of business and strategy, Share Acre brought on board Mr. Naresh Wadhwa, the ex-head of CISCO Asia. It also raised funds for marketing from Mr. Jayendra Shah, who is Share Acre’s first angel investor and is an advisor to the company
Share Acre - Revenue Model
The Share Acre revenue model earns via brokerage from sellers and a commission on property management services and rental services.
It lists properties that have a price range of 15 lakhs to 3 crores, for 25% of the property
Share Acre - Funding and Investors
Share Acre raised seed funding from angel investor Jayendra Shah in January 2019. The amount for Share Acre Funding was undisclosed.
| Funding Date | Funding Stage | Funding Amount | Investor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5th January,2019 | Seed | Undisclosed | Jayendra Shah |
Share Acre - Startup Challenges
The most challenging part for the Share Acre team was to filter out the best properties. This involved countless trips across India to find the best properties for the buyers. There were times when the team has to spend weeks negotiating prices with developers, to ensure the most cost effective price for the end consumers. Â
Share Acre - Competitors
Currently, there are no other companies offering fractional ownership in India. Share Acre provides curated listings of property and end-to-end assistance to facilitate the sale, without taking any brokerage from the buyer. It also provides fully furnished interior design and property management. No other company in India provides all these services in a single package.
There are multiple listing platforms. But they are all plagued with a common problem of sub-par user experience. They have countless listings, without curation, and do not provide end-to-end services until the purchase of the property. Similarly, there are countless real estate agents, but they charge high amounts in brokerage from both the buyer and seller. And there are countless property management and interior design firms but all charge a premium price and do not come together with the property.
Share Acre - Advisors and Mentors
Share Acre has experienced advisors and mentors in its team. The company is being mentored by
- Mr. Jayendra Shah (advisors to. companies such as Unichem Laboratories) Â
- Mr. Naresh Wadhwa (ex-head of CISCO Asia)
- Mr. Sahil Dhowan  (Head of TCCM fund)                                  Â
Share Acre - Growth
Share Acre is one of the few or maybe the only fractional ownership companies in India till date. Share Acre has expanded to over 7 cities in India and has secured properties of the best developers in the Industry, including Della (Lonavala), Ekta (Nashik), Ashray (Goa), Ahillia Homes (Goa) and Tata (Goa). It has also tied up with Opnhouz, a real estate brokerage firm in New Jersey for reaching out to NRIs. To find new avenues of investment and growth, Share Acre has brought on board experts from the industry, one of which is Mr. Sahil Dhowan.
Frequently Asked Questions - FAQs
What is Fractional ownership of home?
Fractional ownership of homes is a concept adopted around the world where it provides people a more efficient, cost-effective and accessible way to own second homes. The parties involved share maintenance charges for the home and have the property to themselves depending on the fraction of the property they are paying for.
What is Share Acre?
Share Acre is a real estate startup that allows two or more like-minded people to come together and split the cost and CO-OWN a second home to use, rent and eventually sell. They also provide all services associated with buying, like legal and financial services, making the process super simple.
What are the names of some fractional ownership startups in India?
Till date (March 2021), Share Acre is the most popular and seemingly only fractional ownership startups in India.
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