Overseas property is a tricky asset class for the investor. The initial outlay is large, there are layers of bureaucracy to negotiate, often in a foreign language, fees to pay for lettings management and high maintenance costs. This is perhaps why most of us buy abroad for pleasure, rather than capital gain - but what if there were a way to achieve both?

It is with this in mind that the Rocksure property company has come up with “A House for All Seasons”, combining an overseas property fund with a fractional ownership scheme. Investors commit a slice of capital upfront, invested in a portfolio of six properties. They receive no income but are allotted four weeks a year in any of the properties. At the end of the fund's seven years, the properties are sold and the profits shared among investors, though the fund managers take 17.5 per cent of any increase above the first 20 per cent gain. The minimum investment is half a unit, which entitles you to two weeks a year in the properties and costs £94,500.

“Investors like the fact that, in property terms, this is a relatively small amount to invest,” says David Rogers, one of Rocksure's founders. “They like the investment being in six properties, which means that risk is well spread, and the fact that there is no mortgage.” Rogers is a former chief operating officer of Abercrombie & Kent, the luxury travel company; his co-founder at Rocksure, Desmond Patrick-Smith, was managing director for Europe at the same firm. They set up Rocksure and launched their first fund, the Alpha Fund, in July 2006. It closed last summer having raised a little over £5.7 million, which was spent on properties in Morocco, Brazil, the United States, Portugal and Thailand.

Choosing the right places to invest was tricky. “We have to be able to deliver capital growth for investors, but we also have to pick destinations which will be great places for high net worth individuals to go on holiday,” Rogers says. “We needed to find places that have long seasons, aiming for about ten months of decent weather. That's why we have so little property in Europe.”

The directors chose all the properties themselves. Rogers says: “In Portugal, Desmond looked at more than 80 properties before he found the right one.” He selected Casa Alto do Cerro, a five-bedroom, five-bathroom villa in Loulé in the Algarve. “The crucial thing to remember is that we are buying to sell,” Rogers says. All Rocksure's properties sleep ten people, are worth an average of £1million each and are fully staffed.

One key attraction is price; the annual management fee for a full unit, which costs £189,000 and entitles the investor to four weeks a year in the properties, is only £1,800. Many fractional ownership schemes levy fees of several thousands a year. The Hideaways Club, for example, charges £12,000 a year for up to five weeks in its properties. But it does offer a wider range; there are now 13 houses in a range of European locations.

There are drawbacks with this sort of scheme. First, there is no limit on the downside; if the properties fall in value, you will lose money. There is no early exit strategy either: you must be sure you can afford to commit your capital for the full seven years. Finally, the fixed wind-up time could work against you if global property markets turn against you towards the end of the fund's life. The fund managers have a 12-month window in which to dispose of the properties, which gives limited flexibility.

Rocksure: rocksureproperty.com

Hideaways Club: thehideawaysclub.com

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