B.2.4. Providers of non market accommodation services for own final use: owner occupied vacation homes and timeshares
6.57. Regarding the “classical” owner‑occupied vacation home, the first issue for a country is to identify dwellings used for that purpose, a task for tourism statisticians. The second issue is then to associate with such dwellings an imputed annual rent to represent the value of the service, that value being an estimation of a tourism product. Such a task is the responsibility of national accountants when they are developing a TSA. The United Nations publication providing recommendations for housing censuses indicates how countries should identify dwellings not intended for year‑round occupancy (see Box VI.5).
6.58. On the basis of figures calculated for the census year, usually available with a detailed geographical breakdown, it will be possible to estimate the number of such dwellings in a current year. UNWTO has already developed some additional proposals for using different types of sources – censuses, surveys and administrative data – to determine the number and characteristics of vacation homes and identify those owned by non‑residents.
6.59. As mentioned earlier, once the number of vacation homes used by their owners has been established, the associated rent can be estimated using the method recommended in the 2008 SNA. The same treatment needs to be applied to all other vacation homes, whether located in the visitor’s country of residence or in another country.
6.60. Timeshare constitutes a slightly different case: the “owner” of a timeshare dwelling has the right to use a unit of accommodation (a unique one, or one of a family of such units) for a limited fraction of time (usually a week or multiples of a week) every year repeatedly (or according to another established frequency) over a particular (10, 20 or more) or infinite number of years. This right can be conferred by a deed or by any other type of contract, in which case the contract most often does not grant ownership over a physical asset.
6.61. The term “timeshare” covers a continuum of arrangements, ranging from an early prepayment of future holidays to real estate investment arrangements that vary from country to country and are highly dependent on the existing legal and tax setting.
6.62. Schematically, one may say that there are three major types of arrangements: (a) deeded ownership, (b) the “right‑to‑use” type of ownership and (c) the membership system, subject to roughly the same conditions: an initial payment, and annual fees, including (a) annual management fees, (b) annual maintenance fees, (c) property taxes, (d) insurance and (e) occasional fees (special assessments) for major repairs and property refurbishment.
6.63. The number of timeshare units can be established more easily than that of vacation homes. This is because the specialized entities that are usually in charge of managing such rentals are thus able to report on the number of paid‑for units which were actually rented.