In the News

Credit Where Credit's Due

Article taken from the August issue of A Place in the Sun , the UK's best-selling overseas property magazine.

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Changing places at home
The Richmond Magazine

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Twenty first century travel secret
The Green Magazine 

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An extract from an article in the MailOnline by Mike Peake

Bored of your holiday home? Stay in someone else's, anywhere in the world..

As trends go, it is a bit of a tiddler - a form of house swapping for which no name exists. But 'non-simultaneous holiday home sharing' is one way of turning an empty second home into something worth having - a free holiday, and in today's economic climate, even those who are well-off enough to own a second home abroad are watching every penny.
'One of the disadvantages of having a home in another country is that you feel obliged to go all the time,' says Pat Shutter, a retired charity director from Bath. 'You think: "I have this lovely holiday home, so why should I go anywhere else?"

'Shutter owns a five-bedroom hilltop mansion on the Caribbean Poolside perfection: The Grand Bay Oasis villa, Mauritius could be yours - for a holiday island of Tobago. She has no qualms about renting it out, but holiday property rentals worldwide are down 25 per cent.And that's why the International Vacation Home Exchange (IVHE) is so attractive to second-home owners....Read more: article

An extract from an article in the Daily Telegragh:

Ins and outs of home swaps can be hellish
By Cassandra Jardine  / The Daily Telegraph / 1117 words

We never got as far as finding out, because I began by emailing the houses in Mediterranean hotspots that I thought we'd like to stay in. There weren't very many and their owners, mysteriously, weren't tempted by an August break in Brixton. Going lower down my list of desirables I got to Florida, but the homes to fit a family of seven were rare and, when I looked them up on the map, in dreary suburban spots. I shouldn't have been surprised. These are real homes lived in by people who also don't have masses of money and need to get to work, so they are unlikely to be in Portofino or St Tropez. I did find one organisation - www.ivhe.com - that offers swaps to delectable spots, using a points system, but it caters for second-home owners with ski lodges in Gstaad to exchange for beach homes in the Caribbean.

Copyright: Telegraph Media Group Ltd

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An extract from an article by Patricia Keegan:

21st Century's Classiest Travel Secret
Have Home Will Travel!
By Patricia Keegan / www.washingtoninternational.com  

Just imagine going online and deciding not only which exotic country you would like to visit, but also the particular style, size, or scenic setting of the home awaiting you there. The premier exchange broker, London-based International Vacation Home Exchange Network , (IVHE), has made it accessible and exciting. In order to become a member of IVHE, you must have a second or third home available for exchange which falls into the upscale category while enjoying a unique location. Not only residences qualify, but also vacation villas, country cottages, log cabins, even yachts.

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 New York Times article about Vacation-Home Swapping by Amy Gunderson published on December 27th 2006.
'Although a majority of home-trading Web sites act as a nexus to connect owners, International Vacation Home Exchange (www.ivhe.com) takes a different approach. Suzie Magnus, the founder, said she started the company to enable second homeowners who might own a property in a less prime location, say in the suburbs of a city, to use their home in a swap for a more desirable property, like a villa in the Caribbean.' Read the whole
article  (Free registration required). It is also easy to find the article in the search engines using the search term 'NY Times IVHE'.