In the current economy, with property prices continuing to fall, the luxury destination club Botiga is delaying the purchase of its first group of homes.

Botiga commenced operations earlier this year and plans to build a global portfolio of homes including individual residences, member-only boutique hotels and apartments in urban locations.

This equity destination club is headquartered in London, so the initial properties will be within 4-6 hours of London, with later additions further afield.

The club put out a statement saying:

"With property prices continuing to soften, members have requested that Botiga delays the launch of the portfolio in order to take advantage of what they feel will be better pricing in 2009, and therefore maximise their returns.

The club has supported this move.

It is expected that properties will be secured in Spring 2009, to be available for member use from Autumn 2009.

Membership sales continue to be strong and only a limited number of Founder Memberships remain available. Founder Members benefit from the lowest share price and two years of holidays with the club dues free. In addition Founder Members pay no performance fee, allowing them to benefit from 100% of the growth in their share price."

With global property markets still dropping, it does make sense to delay purchasing the initial homes. Wit its equity based structure the members of Botiga also get to participate in the upside on the homes, so delaying these purchases makes sense for both the club management and its members.