Timesharing means that customers can enjoy a one-week vacation every year after purchasing the right to use a house for a period of time (usually one week).
In addition, you can also use your own time period to exchange for another time period belonging to the same exchange network in order to travel to different places.
However, the timeshare market is still underdeveloped and there are still many pain points to be addressed.
On July 13, Labs Group, the first end-to-end crowdfunding service in the blockchain and real estate industry, told Cointelegraph China in its Hub interview that the project would launch the world’s first community-powered and -owned resort — Kunang Kunang Glamping Resort. The resort would solve the pain points of the traditional timeshare market.
Labs Group fractionalized the entire resort into 365 rewarding timeshare (RTS) nonfungible tokens, providing successful bidders with never-before-seen benefits in the traditional timeshare market. The RTS-NFTs will be sold via an auction on the Refinable NFT marketplace starting from 1:00 pm UTC on July 15, 2021, says Yuen Wong, CEO of Labs Group.
Seize the opportunity during a crisis
Through contact with many projects, Wong has been thinking about what blockchain technology can change and what issues it can solve in other industries. Wong found the pain points of traditional timesharing were the high costs of early participation, lack of liquidity, difficulties in cross-border investment and so on.
“Traditional timesharing gives you the right to use the resort property only for a short period of time (three to seven days) a year,” explained Wong, adding, “But it’s hard to make an appointment. There will never be enough rooms in peak season.”
Therefore, in the case of an outbreak, Labs Group tries to solve the pain point of traditional timesharing by using the transparent and traceable features of blockchain and NFT technology.
When asked why he chose to do this project during the COVID-19 epidemic, Wong told Cointelegraph China:
“Danger and opportunity coexist. We see the opportunity for timesharing. Because when there is no epidemic, developers will not be willing to discuss this project with us. Now when the epidemic breaks out, they will be willing to discuss with us, or even deal at a low price. In the future, we will live with the epidemic, and we will get used to it.”
In this context, Labs Group launched the world’s first community-owned NFT resort with a total of 365 limited RTS-NFTs, which is a good solution to the criticism of traditional timesharing. Labs Group may open up a new opportunity for the blockchain industry and timeshare market, according to Wong.
Wong said:
“Labs Group makes cross-border real estate investment easier. It will do due diligence, feasibility reports, estimation reports and field research on behalf of investors so as to let investors invest at ease. In addition, Labs Group will comply with local laws and regulations, and RTS-NFT holders will have the right to share the profits after the resort is profitable. RTS-NFT holders also have the right to retain residency, trading and voting rights.”
These NFT rights are designed to combat certain issues present in those of the traditional timeshare market by conferring various benefits, such as:
Profit-backed rewards — Actual profit-backed rewards of the property generated from the resort operations will be shared with RTS-NFT holders. The projected return on investment is 10% to 15% per year, which means that investors could break even in their seventh year. There is also a guaranteed minimum 10% return per year in the first two years based on the nominal price.
Staying right — An RTS-NFT will each represent a specific day in the calendar and the corresponding staying right (on that day) on the best available room basis with a penalty clause to compensate for unavailability for whatever reasons.
Trading right — NFTs would be tradable on marketplaces based on the Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum.
Swapping right — RTS-NFT holders would be able to swap the days, the incentive point and the location (of other resorts) later among themselves, on the marketplace or within the Labs ecosystem.
Voting right — Built-in voting content (more than 80%) for major operational decisions (if applicable), such as selling off the resort at a high value.
According to official information from Labs Group, The 15 highest bidders will be offered one-time rights (naming rights) for the auction, while the top 12 bidders of NFTs each month will get the naming right of 12 rooms. In addition, the other three highest bidders will be given the right to name the remaining three rooms of Kunang Kunang Glamping Resort. There will also be an NFT giving the holder the right to name the resort and, most importantly, a 10-day annual residential benefit.
Wong also revealed that:
“Labs Group will sell RTS-NFTs at an auction in the Refinable market on July 15. The auction lasts for 13 days and each auction lasts for 48 hours. A total of 365 RTS-NFTs are available for auction with a starting price of 9,999 USDT each. There is only one RTS-NFT for each day of the year.”
NFT owners can also obtain loans by pledging RTS-NFTs. In addition, Labs Group will use the resort income to buy back the LABS tokens and then continue to distribute these tokens to the holders of the tokens, so as to support the price of LABS.
About Labs Group
Labs Group is a blockchain-based real estate investment platform looking to simplify investor access and capabilities within the asset class. Using the Labs platform, anyone can easily tokenize and fractionalize their real estate, allowing them to sell or trade it in order to gain instant liquidity.
Labs Group also offers a regulated securities market for tokenized real estate trading, a crowdfunding platform and a lending application that allows for peer-to-peer lending based on the collateralization of tokenized real estate assets. Labs Group is redefining the real estate industry, making it more accessible to everyone.
Labs Group has taken Polygon as an extended solution provider of the platform and Refinable as the NFT distribution platform on the BSC.
Wong believes that the use of the BSC can reduce the service charge and cost of NFT issuance and transaction to the minimum, even negligible.
In addition, Labs Group has established partnerships with Enjin, Gravity Resort, Xin Group, DragonBite and other companies. In the future, Labs Group will reach a deep cooperative relationship with Chainlink.