The Holiday Property Bond – It’s a Dog’s Life

The Holiday Property Bond offers exclusive access to over 1,400 properties to its 42,000 investors across more than 30 locations. You can read about pet-friendly properties, but first a brief explanation about the Holiday Property Bond.

A. How can I holiday better?
Invest from £5,000 in the Holiday Property Bond for exclusive access to a portfolio of over 1,400 top quality villas, cottages and apartments in over 30 locations across the UK and Europe. For each £1 invested you will receive one Holiday Point each year which you can use to book the properties. And when staying in them you do not pay a commercial rent, just a no-profit user charge covering actual running, maintenance and refurbishment costs. This charge is level throughout the year so there are no high season premiums. For a studio for two the charge averages about £300 a week, for a two bedroom property sleeping up to six around £460 a week. And there are larger properties available. This no-profit user charge is only payable when you want to go on holiday. Your only ongoing commitment is a quarterly fee of just over £30 – that is around £125 a year.

B. Will there be more properties in the future?
As we attract more investors the more properties we will add to the portfolio – increasing your holiday choice still further.

C. How long can I holiday with HPB?
For life if you wish – the holiday benefits last as long as you hold the Bond. In due course you can pass it and the holiday benefits to your children and grandchildren, as many of our earlier investors have already done. If, however, at some point you and your family no longer wish to holiday with us you can surrender your Bond back to the company after two years or more (subject to deferral in exceptional circumstances). You will not get back the full amount you invested, although we would hope that you will have had some wonderful holidays. What you do get back will reflect initial charges (25%) taken before your money is invested in the HPB fund of holiday properties and securities. The fund itself also pays annual charges of around 2.5% and other overheads. The value of the fund’s properties and securities can also go up or down and so, like most investments, your capital is at risk.

For many, a pet is very much part of the family; and this is particularly true of dogs. And when we go on holiday, we want to take our family with us. Don’t we?  

That’s why, throughout its 32-year history, HPB has placed great emphasis on the provision of ‘pet-friendly’ properties. Of our 591 UK properties, 222 welcome well behaved dogs, with a further 33 properties overseas.

Overseas breaks

Alison and Alistair Burns and daughter Natalie were, they admit, “chary” about taking four-month-old cockapoo Coco on her first Bond holiday, to Le Manoir du Hilguy – “But we needn’t have worried,” says Alistair, Professor of Old-Age Psychiatry at Manchester University. “The pet passport was easily arranged, we sailed through passport control and, once in France, were welcomed wherever we went; at all restaurants – very different from the UK, and all beaches apart from one ‘town’ beach which had a dog-free section.”

That welcome extended to the family’s stay at HPB’s Breton château, Le Manoir du Hilguy. “Everyone wanted to make a fuss of Coco – obviously!” says Alison, an archaeologist. “But honestly, the Hilguy staff couldn’t have been nicer, or more helpful. To comply with pet passport rules we needed to give Coco a worming pill on the Friday, prior to our departure on the Sunday, which entailed a trip to the vet. Not easy to arrange when your French is a bit rusty, but thanks to the Hilguy front desk the whole business went without a hitch.”

The family have no immediate holiday plans – though Alison fancies another winter break at Santa Rosa, Lanzarote: “We’ve had three winter holidays there; as an archaeologist with a side interest in geology the landscape fascinates me, and it’s always nice to be warm!”

“But we will definitely be taking Coco away with us to Bond properties again,” says Alistair. “We’ve had a great time, and so has she. This is an experience well worth repeating.”

Closer to home

“When we discovered HPB, it suited us down to the ground. But it was the Bond’s attitude to dogs – and dog-owners – that really clinched it.” – Tony Kelley

Tony Kelley, a Surrey businessman working in the construction industry (a chartered surveyor by trade), was introduced to the Holiday Property Bond by his brother Chris, a consultant surgeon.

“Increasingly it looked right for us,” he says. “My wife Barbara and I are well travelled, but Barbara has developed tinnitus, making long-haul flights pretty unpleasant. But UK and Europe-wide holidays are still eminently do-able – and HPB’s property portfolio is a perfect fit.”

“But what set HPB apart was the company’s attitude to pets,” adds Barbara. “It was clear from the start that dogs were not just tolerated, but actively welcomed – as much as their owners!”

“That said, pets or no pets... There’s a top-down, bottom-up culture at HPB that really works for our benefit,” says Tony. “Naturally, in a broad-brush sense head office steers the HPB ship (if I may mix my metaphors!), but the ‘crew’ are just as committed. At all levels there’s a real love for the product, and what they do, individually and collectively, to make our already lovely holidays just that little bit more special.

“Case in point: we had a big get-together at Duloe Manor, HPB’s Cornish home, to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. Six adults: us, our daughter Jo, her husband Dan and their 16-year-old twins, our son Philip, wife Kerry and their two children, 14 and 11. Normally Duloe is not geared up for that kind of thing but the site manager is so flexible and helpful – she turned the Bondholders’ occasional dining area over exclusively to us, for a celebration lunch – and we were allowed the dogs in there too. Nothing was too much trouble.

“In addition, when we visited Lower Knapp Farm we took our two dogs with us,” Barbara says. “We decided it would be good to keep the dogs in the hallway, which would necessitate some form of stair-gate. No sooner had we mentioned it, than the job was done.

“We love the overseas sites, especially El Pueblito de Alfaix in southern Spain and Stigliano in Tuscany, but as seasoned travellers it’s nice just to visit what’s (comparatively) on your doorstep – and of course it’s so good for dog-owners.”

Something for everyone

“We travelled a lot after Colin’s retirement. But we were after somewhere we could take the dogs. And once we finally got around to it, we wondered why we had waited so long.” – Carolyn Steel

Colin and Carolyn Steel, from West Sussex, invested in the Holiday Property Bond in summer 2016. “My sister, Sarah, has been a Bondholder since about 2009,” Carolyn says. “And she and her husband Philip were always waxing enthusiastic about HPB. We weren’t unkeen, exactly; but you know how it is, other things take priority... in fact we travelled a lot after Colin’s retirement. But we were after somewhere we could take the dogs. And once we finally got around to it, we wondered why we had waited so long.”

Having well and truly caught the Bond bug, Carolyn and Colin quickly booked a selection of HPB holidays, including Duloe Manor, the Bond’s Cornish home, Tigh Mor Trossachs, HPB’s Perthshire home, and Lodge Yard in Askrigg, in the heart of the Yorkshire Dalesy.  They also have their eye on La Reserva de Biniorella, Majorca or El Balcón de Santa Ana, La Gomera.

Their Cornish sojourn was a huge success. “The site ticked so many boxes for us,” Carolyn explains. “In general terms, we’re ‘outdoors’ people. But specifically: we love gardening, and the gardens at Duloe are absolutely sublime; we love walking, especially with the dogs – as a matter of fact I train dogs as a hobby – and Duloe is in the middle of prime walking country. Our lives are not all about the open air, though; I’m a keen bridge player, and I can quite see myself signing up for an HPB ‘Theme Week’ special-interest holiday.”

The couple’s three children have also expressed an interest in using Mum and Dad’s Bond. “We’re not too keen on giving away our Holiday Points,” says Colin, “but our eldest daughter has grown-up children and is therefore not tied to school terms; she could easily take advantage of HPB’s short-notice Points-free breaks.”

And we have already decided that in due course the three of them will inherit our Bond,” adds Carolyn. “We might have taken our time investing, but our children and grandchildren will still benefit.”

You can enjoy holidays like this too

Find out more about how you can take your pick from over 1,400 holiday properties at more than 30 stunning locations in the UK and throughout Europe. Click here for your free HPB information pack, with full colour brochure and introductory DVD.

Important Information
This advertisement is issued by HPB Management Limited (HPBM) registered at HPB House, Newmarket, Suffolk, CB8 8EH. HPBM is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and is the main UK agent and the property manager for HPB, issued by HPB Assurance Limited (HPBA) registered in the Isle of Man and authorised by the Financial Services Authority there. The Trustee of HPB is HSBC Trustee (C.I.) Limited registered at HSBC House, Esplanade, St Helier, Jersey, JE1 1GT. The Securities Manager is Stanhope Capital LLP of 35 Portman Square, London, W1H 6LR.

HPBM promotes only HPB and is not independent of HPBA. Holders of policies issued by HPBA will not be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if the company becomes unable to meet its liabilities to them but Isle of Man compensation arrangements apply to new policies.

Silver Travel Advisor recommends Holiday Property Bond.

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