Rocksure launches NYC fund for shared apartment ownership

The Rocksure Group, a real estate equity fund begun in the United Kingdom that specializes in shared ownership of property worldwide, has launched a new fund that, in part, will focus on the Manhattan market, The Real Deal has learned. The fund seeks to buy four apartments around town — in such neighborhoods as Tribeca, Midtown and the Upper East Side — with 16 investors per property.

Though investors will have an equal stake in ownership, the use is shared. They’ll have access to their Manhattan apartment 21 nights per year with a minimum three-night stay during the ten-year span of the fund. An individual investor’s equity share in this fund will cost $350,000 (the first 12 investors will get a $15,000 discount), and there will also be annual dues for maintenance. Each residence will come with housekeeping service and access to Rocksure’s concierge service.

“It’s still a new idea,” said Alistair Ballantine, Rocksure North America’s chairman, who added that time share and destination club models don’t promote real estate ownership. “An unfamiliar concept.”

The end goal is to make capital gains on the apartments when the fund completes its 10-year investment period.

“We collect the subscriptions from the investors and we then buy when we have the cash,” Ballantine said of the business model, adding that the group simultaneously launched a similar fund for London homes. “We thought, ‘Where’s the other city in the world that everyone would like to have a piece of?'”

Investors are also eligible to buy a half share in the Manhattan fund and another half in the London one. This will give them 10 nights of use per year in each city.

Rocksure’s other funds, which have bought property in parts of America, Europe and Asia, have nabbed over $30 million in investments over the past eight years.