The Benefits of Fractional Cottage Ownership
The Cottages at Windermere offers a flexible and unique fractional cottage ownership program that gives you the chance to enjoy several weeks of carefree time in Muskoka in every season. If you want the opportunity to enjoy a Muskoka cottage lifestyle during your holidays without the costs and cares associated with full-time cottage ownership, it just doesn’t get any better than this.
As a fractional owner, you’ll never fix a deck, repair a dock, or mow the lawn yourself. You just sit back and enjoy luxurious cottage ownership with its vacation amenities. Your family will love this private lake front enclave situated just 2.5 hours north of Toronto. It’s the most cost-effective, worry-free way of owning prime cottage real estate in Muskoka!
How it works
Each fraction purchased entitles you to enjoy your cottage for a specific number of assigned fixed and floating weeks every year.
- Five week fractions feature three fixed weeks of use (one of which is a summer week), and two floating weeks.
- Seven week fractions feature four fixed weeks of use (two of which are summer weeks), and three floating weeks.
- Twelve week fractions give you seven fixed weeks of use (three of which are summer weeks), and five floating weeks.
The use of your cottage is defined by our Owners’ Agreement and associated By-Laws (much like a Condominium Agreement/By-Laws). Each “Fraction” is assigned a specific Cottage, a specific number of fixed weeks, along with additional floating weeks that vary from year to year.
Proximity to the Windermere House Resort
In addition to enjoying all of the luxuries and features of the cottages themselves, owners also benefit from the fact that the cottages are situated right next door to Windermere House, Muskoka’s premiere hotel and resort. In fact, our cottages are sometimes referred to as “the Windermere House fractional cottages”. Cottage guests can take advantage of such Windermere House resort amenities as the restaurants, spa, golf course, sauna, and fitness centre.
No work to do
Unlike full-time ownership, where you would be responsible for doing all maintenance and repairs yourself, at the Cottage at Windermere, each Fractional Owner is responsible for a corresponding share in the annual cost of ownership. Owners contribute these annual fees to pay for property maintenance, as well as to build a capital reserve for additional unexpected expenses and repairs.
Own, or sell, your equity
But don’t mistake this for a ‘time share’; this is cottage ownership, where you share the cost of ownership of your cottage and lakefront property with others. You are buying a piece of equity in the property.
And as an owner, you can also choose to sell your fraction of this recreational investment in the future, should your personal and family situation change over time.
Choose how you use your weeks
You can choose how you wish to enjoy the weeks that you are entitled to each year. You can:
- Enjoy the cottage yourself;
- Trade your weeks with other owners;
- Rent your weeks to guests; or
- Exchange your weeks for holidays elsewhere, through the Interval International program.
Additional holiday exchange opportunities, through Interval International
Our cottage owners benefit from our affiliation with Interval International, a global timeshare exchange program featuring more than 2,900 resorts. Every year, Cottages at Windmere owners can trade their unwanted weeks at Windermere for vacation destinations in more than 80 countries. The Interval program includes such luxury hotel brands as The Four Seasons, J.W. Marriott and Hilton.
In recent years, our owners have enjoyed holidays in a wide variety of destinations including Hawaii, the Bahamas, Scotland, California, Spain and Hong Kong. The Interval exchange program operates on a points system. Each week is assigned a point value based on the time of year and size of the unit being exchanged. Since The Cottages at Windermere are all 3+ bedroom units, they have significant points value, even for low-demand weeks. Points can also be used towards nights at leading hotels in major world cities, as well as cruises and weekend getaways.
Windermere Cottage Association
Each Fraction Owner is also a member of the The Windermere Cottage Association, which is a not-for-profit company whose Board of Directors are owners, elected by the voting members of the Association. An Annual General Meeting is held each year.
Click here to find out more about fractional ownership.