A private global travel club that lets luxury second-home owners swap properties instead of renting them has officially launched in New Zealand after years of quietly operating here.
Touted as “the only upscale home exchange collection for second-home owners”, ThirdHome already has 95 properties listed in local destinations such as Wānaka, Hawke’s Bay and Waiheke Island, and one property analyst says at least hundreds more will be eligible.
Gina McMurdoch-Sontgen, an Auckland-based real estate agent, bought a house in Queenstown in 2019 and decided to list it on ThirdHome in 2022 to get more out of her underused holiday home.
She told the Herald that ThirdHome is a “Kiwi-friendly concept - practical, good value, and experience-driven” that has enabled her family to turn their Queenstown home into a springboard for “unforgettable trips”.
“I’d say if your second home sits empty for even part of the year, it’s well worth considering,” McMurdoch-Sontgen said.
“You’re not renting it out in the traditional sense - it stays within a trusted network of like-minded homeowners who value and respect the spaces they stay in.”
Members pay a US$295 ($495) annual fee for the club after the first year, and each booking requires a property-dependent exchange payment between US$495 ($830) and US$1395 ($2340).
Despite the high price, ThirdHome claims members can save up to 90% on accommodation costs by avoiding nightly rental rates.
ThirdHome allows luxury second-home owners “to use the downtime in their vacation home to travel somewhere else in the world without having to pay rent”, founder Wade Shealy told the Herald during a visit to Auckland.
The Tennessee-based company lets members trade unused time in their homes for credits or “keys”, which are calculated based on the home’s value and its geographic appeal over particular periods.
Members then use the keys collected to book stays at other members’ homes.
“You have to put something in to take something out of the system,” Shealy said.
This isn’t your average house swap though, with these luxury assets a far cry from the average Kiwi bach.
Members could use their accrued credits to book a 25-metre-long luxury yacht in the Whitsundays - valued at $72,600 for seven days - or escape to a 4856-ha private safari estate in South Africa’s Waterberg region.
Eligible properties are restricted by strict “community standards”, which prioritise premium locations and bespoke design that effectively set the entry price at around $1.5 million.
Aspiring ThirdHome members are comprehensively vetted before they join, with profiles on other platforms scrutinised to ensure community trust.
“If [members] have bad reviews of any kind, we don’t let them in,” Shealy said.
“There’s a big thing ... between all the members that they trust each other, they’re going to take care and if somebody doesn’t take care of somebody’s house, they get removed from the club.”
For McMurdoch-Sontgen, using ThirdHome has meant her family could stay in highly personal, curated homes and “really live like a local” in the destinations they visit.
“We’ve been able to stay in places we may never have considered otherwise, and in homes that offer far more than what traditional accommodation can provide,” she said.
“A Malibu beachfront stay with the Pacific Ocean washing up to the weathered balcony, for example, put us right on the beach in a home filled with character and charm - we felt like we were living there, not just passing through.”
McMurdoch-Sontgen’s family still use traditional accommodation providers for short trips “when it makes sense”, but opt for ThirdHome when they’re looking to settle in somewhere.
“The only challenge is availability during peak seasons in high-demand spots. But if you plan a little ahead or stay flexible, the payoff is huge.
“You get to stay in places with real depth and charm, often well off the usual tourist radar.”
The high threshold to join raises an obvious question. How many homes even qualify?
OneRoof’s latest data places the nationwide median house price at $966,014 - well below the $1.5m threshold for a ThirdHome property.
According to Matt Ball, the PR & Advocacy Manager for the New Zealand Property Investors’ Federation (NZPIF), reliable figures on the number of eligible homes are hard to come by.
“Data on how many Kiwis own a holiday home - as opposed to a rental company - are sparse,” Ball said.
“We know that around 100,000 homes were empty at the last Census, but we don’t know what proportion of these are holiday homes, how many are worth over $1.5 million or whether they could be considered ‘luxury.’”
Ball looked at holiday rental website Vrbo, which lists nearly 15,000 vacation rentals.
Fewer than 300 were priced over $1250 a night, Ball’s “arbitrary measure of luxury”, so he estimated “between 300 and 15,000 homes could qualify”.
Concerns that ThirdHome could disrupt the local property or rental markets are unfounded, Ball said, who noted the effect will likely be negligible.
“It’s hard to imagine that ThirdHome would have any discernible effect on luxury property prices in New Zealand.
“The ability to use the home as a house swap is not likely to rank highly as a consideration when buying such a home, so it’s unlikely to have any impact on demand.”
Given the type of properties and locations listed, he also saw little risk to the broader rental market.
“Nor is it likely to impact the majority of the holiday rental sector, given its focus on high-end luxury properties.”
The platform could actually generate value for Aotearoa by making better use of idle luxury homes, Ball said.
“If ThirdHome succeeds in increasing the utilisation of existing luxury holiday homes, it could deliver an economic benefit to New Zealand through an increase in high-value international tourism.
“Any effort to increase the utilisation of existing assets should be applauded.”
Tom Rose is an Auckland-based journalist who covers breaking news, specialising in lifestyle, entertainment and travel. He joined the Herald in 2023.
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