Transfer Smart News: Study Claims Many Saudis Regret Purchasing Timeshares

It is a well-known fact today that many owners want to get out of their timeshare contracts after using such properties after a couple of years. According to a survey, in Riyadh, the vast majority of Saudis who own timeshares regret purchasing them.

The study was conducted by the Riyadh Center for Information and Consultancy Studies. It claims that 85% of those surveyed wish they had never entered into such an agreement. It also says that nearly 78% of owners view their involvement in the industry as evil. Moreover, the survey revealed that nearly 85% of Saudis who invested in a timeshare agreement are men while 81% are married.

These days, there has been a growing demand for such properties among the younger generation. In fact, 47% of timeshare owners are aged between 30 and 40 compared to 13% for the 40 to 50 age bracket and 10.5% for over 50s. The study also revealed that over 60% of them are also university graduates.

Meanwhile, a timeshare is the name given to a piece of real estate owned by a number of individuals. These are typically holiday resort units and each sharer is allocated a period of time, usually around one week to use the property. Timeshare agreements may also be drawn up on a part-ownership or lease basis where the sharer holds no claim to the ownership of the property.

On the other hand, estate agents dealing in timeshare properties mainly target those with a high monthly income to improve their chances of receiving a higher commission. However, as the study showed, this was not the case with Saudi timeshare owners. Only eight percent of them had a monthly salary of between SR15,000 and SR20,000. About 31.5 % of owners earned between SR10,000 and SR15,000 while 18% were on less than SR5,000. This means that even people with a limited income set aside a part of their savings for their vacation expenses as the study claimed.