Finances bleak for Timeshare Industry

Time-share experts continued to paint a bleak picture of the industry’s financing options last week, as executives gathered for the 11th Annual Vacation Ownership Investment Conference, this year at the Peabody Orlando.

Not much has changed since the capital markets seized last fall, making it difficult for time shares to fund development and sales. The good news is that, after a year, developers have at least adapted to the new conditions, said Jeffrey Galle, director of structured finance at CapitalSource.

Because of a lack of financing, time-share developers deliberately slowed sales this year. Scott Berman, of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said industry sales this year are likely to total something in between $6billion and $8 billion, which is equivalent to sales in 2004.

In a rare note of optimism from the lending panel, Galle hinted that some financing could be on its way. “There’s some larger banks, key banks, that are sniffing around the space,” he said.

Full report here