Luxury home exchange club launches in NZ

Sunday, 13 April 2025

Fancy a rent-free, opulent holiday getaway in an Italian palazzo, a beachfront villa in Hawaii, or on a mini superyacht in the Whitsunday Islands? If you own a luxury second home, you could be in luck.

Third Home, a high-end holiday home exchange club, with more than 18,000 properties in 100 countries on its books, is officially launching in New Zealand in June.

It allows carefully vetted members to earn credits when fellow members stay in the property they have listed with the club. That credit can then be used to secure a glamorous property in a sought-after holiday location.

And there is a stunning range of options available. They include chalets in exclusive ski-ing resorts, historic castles, private game lodges, wineries, superyachts and private islands.

While stays are rent-free, there are exchange fees of between US$495 and US$1395 per week, based on a property’s availability, location, size and amenities. Annual membership costs US$295, but it is free in the first year and only charged later if a member books a stay.

These costs can be up to 90% less than the actual rental costs for these types of properties.

But the catch is that to become a member it is necessary to own a “well-apppointed” second property worth more than NZ$2.15 million in a desirable location.

The platform, which was founded by US-based real estate mogul Wade Shealy in 2010, has grown by word by mouth and there are already 67 New Zealand luxury retreats listed on it.

Shealy says New Zealand is a highly attractive holiday destination, one he has considered moving to himself, and he wants to significantly grow the club’s portfolio of offerings around the country.

Officially launching the club will boost its profile to potential local members, and he is confident that what Third Home offers will attract new recruits to the network, he says.

“As more homeowners look for smarter ways to maximise their second homes, our model provides an opportunity to unlock incredible global travel experiences without the complexities of traditional renting.”

Following the success of a similar recent push in Australia, he is excited to offer more New Zealand homeowners access to extraordinary properties worldwide, he says.

Auckland-based Josephine Elworthy is already an enthusiastic member of Third Home. Her cousin introduced her to it before she joined four years ago.

Elworthy owns a luxury retreat in Clevedon in South Auckland. The property features a historic homestead, a pool, a poolhouse, a marquee lawn, and sprawling grounds, which include polo fields.

While it is listed on Airbnb and available to book for private events, having it signed up on Third Home comes with additional benefits, she says.

“The glory of being a New Zealand member of the club is that the peak travel period for the Northern Hemisphere is July to August ‒ and that’s the quiet season here.”

That means she can block out a six-week period for Third Home over that time, and it will get snapped up without impacting local demand. And as it is considered peak season, each booking earns good credit for her own stays.

“It works for us, and it’s particularly wonderful if you are travelling with family or friends,” she says.

“We’ve used it to stay in some lovely locations, including an English country house, a villa in the south of France, and another in Tuscany in Italy, and most recently a property in Queenstown.

“Financially, it’s cost-effective. For example, I’ve booked a five-room house in Fiji this August for $1000 for a week. Booking five rooms in a resort at that time of year would cost well over $1000 for each room.”

It’s also quite tax efficient, as it does not generate income as properties rented on short-term platforms, such as Airbnb, do, Elworthy says.

“There’s a sense of security with bookings: the visitors are respectful, and you know your property is in safe hands. That’s not necessarily the case with Airbnb.

“And within the club it’s a real community, and you can interact on a personal level with the owners of places you stay in.

“Before we stayed in the Italian villa, the owner and I had an hour’s Zoom call, and she told me all about the local village, where to go and what to buy.”

Being a member has made her think more about going to places she has not been, she adds. “There’s lots of properties in Mexico. I’d love to go there, knowing that we’re going will be safe.”

Third Homes’ Shealy is in expansionary mode and aims to increase the number of properties in the club to 50,000 over the next two years.

He is confident that will happen because the problem he originally founded the club to address has not gone away. It is a problem he identified in his work as a high-end resort agent and developer.

Buyers would be happy with a holiday home purchase at first, but then their enthusiasm would wane, he says.

“Although they still had costs, such as the mortgage, to pay, they would start paying to holiday elsewhere, and eventually they’d sell up.

“That’s a costly process, and it gave me the idea of setting up a pool of people in different places who could stay in each other's properties, rather than paying to holiday somewhere. It all grew from there.”

These days Shealy is driving growth by partnering with developers of premium resorts including Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, and Six Senses to offer memberships to people buying their residences.

He has also started recruiting real estate agents to an ambassador programme where agents can earn free stays when they sell a home and the buyer takes up a club membership.

The airing of TV series Millionaire Holiday Home Swap, which covered the homes and holidays of club members, has also driven up interest in the club, and a second series is in the works.

In Australia, high demand has led to the establishment of a dedicated office on the Gold Coast, and that office will service the New Zealand market too, he says.

“We would like to see the number of New Zealand properties on Third Home increase to 670 from 67 now.”

Next up, Shealy and his partner, Debbi Fields, founder of global cookie empire Mrs Fields, will be visiting New Zealand in late May to meet new members.

It’s something he and Fields have done around the world, because the club is a community and they consider the members friends, he says.

“But it’s also a chance to visit New Zealand again. I love New Zealand, there are some spectacular locations and properties. Everyone I know in the US who has been there wants to move there.

“Having to visit all these beautiful places, like New Zealand, well ‒ it’s a hard job, but someone has to do it.”