He says the regulars over the years have become lifelong friends \u2212 more like family. <\/p>\n
Club Paihia spokesman and committed timeshare owner Bill O’Meara. Image \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Timeshare, or \u201choliday ownership\u201d, <\/a>is a concept where several people own rights to a holiday property, as opposed to the property itself.<\/p>\n The number of owners depended on the timeshare model, with the most common being 52 owners per unit, where each owner got one week of use a year.<\/p>\n The number of owners was then multiplied by the number of apartments available, so, for example, a 50-room resort could have up to 52 owners a unit, resulting in a total of 2600 owners.<\/p>\n O\u2019Meara says the timeshare concept came from the US and arrived in New Zealand in the early 1980s. <\/p>\n Owners paid an up-front purchase price for a unit title that could be tens of thousands of dollars for a new one, or a couple of thousand for something older, plus annual levies to cover maintenance fees.<\/p>\n Purchasers were given a certificate of title. In New Zealand, owners had legal protection<\/a> under the Unit Titles Act.<\/p>\n O\u2019Meara says securing your week could come down to \u201cdrawing straws\u201d, but booking systems were professionally run under a \u201cclassification\u201d system, much like any hotel or resort.<\/p>\n Back when he bought their timeshare, it was a better option than an annual overseas holiday.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no way that I could have a holiday at an international holiday<\/a> destination for the same money.\u201d<\/p>\n He wouldn\u2019t say what he and his wife paid for their timeshare, only that they weren\u2019t among those who forked out up to $30,000 in the early 1980s (about $107,000 today) for a timeshare off the plans.<\/p>\n True believer <\/p>\n O\u2019Meara is a firm believer in the merits of the timeshare concept. He holds an active role in the industry association for the timeshares in New Zealand as a member of the New Zealand Holiday Ownership Council (formerly the New Zealand Timeshare Owners Association).<\/p>\n He is also on the body corporate of Club Paihia<\/a>, which oversees the running of the resort.<\/p>\n For O\u2019Meara and his family, the merits of owning a timeshare include the \u201cenforced getaway\u201d to a favoured spot, in New Zealand<\/a> and even overseas.<\/p>\n He says there\u2019s a global network of about 500 timeshare resorts offering an exchange system, helmed by companies offering a professional management service.<\/p>\n In New Zealand, many timeshares were managed by Australian firm Classic Holidays, which bought New Zealand\u2010based Monad Pacific Management Limited in 2023.<\/p>\n Monad managed 13 timeshare resorts across New Zealand, with about 13,000 member families under management.<\/p>\n The acquisition made Classic Holidays the largest timeshare management company in Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n O\u2019Meara says owners can swap their week for another timeshare somewhere else in the world through one of the exchange companies.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a family, we\u2019ve been to Hawaii every year. We would take two weeks on the Gold Coast <\/a>and school holidays in the middle of winter.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d get the cheapest airfare we could find to get into Coolangatta, hire a rental car from a fellow who gave us a really good deal and got to know us really well and off we go.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Meara says it does, however, take a lot of planning. <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be on your game.\u201d<\/p>\n He says little can beat a relaxing luncheon boat ride<\/a> with friends to one of many bays out from Paihia, or a slow jetski ride to one of many inlets, or a kayak trip to Haruru Falls.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d go up on the tide and when the tide turned, we\u2019d come back again.\u201d<\/p>\n Tide has turned <\/p>\n However, the tide that brought in the wave of investors in the 1980s now appears to have also turned.<\/p>\n In 2023, media reported there were fewer than 20 such resorts left in New Zealand.<\/p>\n The decision in 2025 to wind up the Bishop Selwyn timeshare resort in Paihia was one of five in as many years handled by one law firm alone.<\/p>\n In July, the High Court<\/a> cancelled the unit plan that covered all unit titles at the Bishop Selwyn, and that freed up the entire complex to be sold.<\/p>\n It followed an application to the court by the resort\u2019s body corporate to allow its sale.<\/p>\n The decision wasn\u2019t unanimous, but the majority of owners were in favour.<\/p>\n A survey in 2023 of the 263 unit owners showed 59.7% agreed to a wind-up of the scheme and sale of the property. <\/p>\n At a meeting the following year, 83% voted in favour of a motion to cancel the unit plan, although not all owners could be found.<\/p>\n Justice Jason McHerron said in his judgment that many owners had formed the view that the annual costs of keeping their timeshare weeks did not provide sufficient value, or they no longer had a need for their timeshare holiday accommodation.<\/p>\n Levies are typically in the $800-$1000 range and are paid to the body corporate to cover maintenance and any development.<\/p>\n Justice McHerron said about 17% of the survey respondents last stayed at the Bishop Selwyn two or three years ago and 24% at least four years ago.<\/p>\n He said unit owners looking to sell their interests had found there was no market for timeshare leases and where sales did happen, the vendor was unlikely to receive much, if anything.<\/p>\n He was satisfied it was an appropriate case for the court to exercise its discretion to make orders authorising the cancellation of the unit plan, which was approved to allow sale of the whole property<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was envisaged a share of the proceeds would be allocated to each owner according to their respective interests in the unit plan.<\/p>\n Justice McHerron said a registered valuer would determine this on a percentage basis for each unit and would then be used to calculate the distribution of the sales proceeds after the costs of the sale have been paid.<\/p>\n The Bishop Selwyn Resort on almost 2500sq m of land in downtown Paihia had an insurance value of $20 million and was listed for sale in June 2025 for $5.6m.<\/p>\n Agent Ross Robertson, who recently retired, was handling it as his swansong, one-off project.<\/p>\n He told NZME in late October he had fielded a decent amount of interest so far, with 18-20 parties wanting to look at it.<\/p>\n Gone \u2018out of fashion\u2019<\/p>\n A partner in a Hawke\u2019s Bay<\/a> law firm, Jonathan Norman, who specialises in the timeshare field, says the dynamic of ownership is fascinating.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the people who do use the properties, they absolutely love them. They talk about how their family might have holidayed there for 40 years, that they had the most amazing times and want their children to have the same experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Norman says there\u2019s still a market for timeshares in some areas of the country, but the concept has largely gone out of fashion as the boomers who led the charge begin to fade out. <\/p>\n He says the biggest issue is most owners no longer use them, but are still paying their levies every year and getting very little back.<\/p>\n O\u2019Meara says timeshares have also been at the mercy of increasing competition in the holiday accommodation sector, with the arrival of Airbnb and Bookabach<\/a>.<\/p>\n Airlines had also become \u201cmore aggressive\u201d through there simply being more of them, and the associated travel package deals that have flooded the market.<\/p>\n But many have simply done their time.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir life has changed. They bought in when they were 40 and they\u2019re in their 70s now or coming up 80, and some of them are in their 90s.\u201d<\/p>\nThe sun might be setting on the concept of timeshare holiday accommodation, once popular among the now-boomer generation. Photo \/ 123rf<\/p>\n
The High Court has cancelled the unit plan that covered all unit titles at the Bishop Selwyn Resort in Paihia, and that freed up the entire complex to be sold. Image\/Supplied<\/p>\n
Hawke’s Bay lawyer Jonathan Norman is a partner in law firm Sainsbury Logan & Williams and specialises in winding up timeshare units. Image\/Supplied<\/p>\n