Timeshare Buyers and Sellers Should Contact the Real Estate Board

The Real Estate Board/Commission of Strata Corporations is inviting interested developers or purchasers of timeshare to contact them.

Timeshare, which was added to the responsibilities of the Real Estate Board in 2016, is a tourism product involving the erection of a building, which is subdivided into weeks and sold to various owners.

“It is a vacation experience [in this case], so you are not buying the unit, but the use of the unit,” Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Real Estate Board/Commission of Strata Corporation, Sandra Watson Garrick, said at a JIS ‘Think Tank’, yesterday (August 9).

However, she explained that it can be bought by getting a deed or a lease for a particular time for an amount of years.

“So if someone comes on vacation and loves Jamaica, and loves a [particular] hotel that allows timeshare, they can decide to purchase a week in that unit for some time, for example 10 years, as it should allow them to obtain that product at a reduced rate,” Mrs. Watson Garrick explained, adding that these units come with a maintenance fee.

Persons who are interested may contact the Real Estate Board or visit the website timeshare.reb.gov.jm.

The Board registers timeshare developments and also monitors compliance with the law, as it relates to the selling of the units and how the timeshare owners operate.

For timeshare, the Board is collaborating with the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), the Ministry of Tourism and JAMPRO.

The Real Estate Board regulates practitioners in the real estate industry; registers and licenses real estate dealers and salespeople; registers real estate developers and developments, and conducts monitoring to ensure compliance with the law, and protects the purchasers involved in transactions.