00:00Tiene más de 10 años de experiencia en bienes raíces y es un experto en innovación inmobiliaria.
00:22Fundó Dotloop, una plataforma que transformó la manera de realizar transacciones inmobiliarias
00:29y que fue adquirida en 2015 por Zillow, donde se desempeñó como ejecutivo hasta 2018.
00:37El hoy CEO y cofundador de Pacaso, Austin Allison, en Milenio Negocios.
00:50Bienvenidos a Milenio Negocios, un programa que cuenta historias de empresas
00:55y también de cómo están nuestras finanzas y nuestra economía en México y el mundo.
01:01Y hoy nos acompaña Austin Allison, CEO de Pacaso.
01:05Thank you so much, Austin, for being here with us.
01:08And I want to begin with the idea of buying a second home is always a complex process,
01:14in particular when it is in another country.
01:18And so I wanted to begin with what are the main pain points that Pacaso resolves
01:23for those people who are looking for a second home in an international map?
01:30Well, first off, thanks for having me.
01:32Before I answer that question, I'd like to just explain what Pacaso is.
01:37Pacaso is the leading global marketplace that helps people to co-own luxury vacation homes
01:45around the world. The two main reasons why people choose co-ownership over the alternative
01:51of buying a whole home is number one, the cost savings. With Pacaso, you only buy the amount
01:58of the home that you need. And for most people, that's about 10 to 20% of the time. So with Pacaso,
02:05you can buy one eighth or one quarter of the home. The second reason why people choose co-ownership
02:11is because it's hassle-free. We handle everything so that the owners can just enjoy the property
02:17without the headaches that are customary of owning an entire home. And the hassle also extends
02:24to the purchase process. If you're living in Mexico City, for example, and you want to own a home
02:33in Colorado, that is a big undertaking. With Pacaso, it's very easy.
02:39Now let's talk about the size of the market because you were just explaining what Pacaso does. I want
02:44to sort of zoom out even a little bit more. And have you explained to us exactly how big is the
02:49international second home market worth and how much of that is in North America to try to zoom in a
02:57little bit? And then how much of that do you want for Pacaso in the future?
03:04Well, big picture, there are more than a hundred million second homes around the globe. And most of
03:11those second homes sit empty for 90% of the year. In the US, there's somewhere between six and eight
03:20million second homes. And the way that I think about Pacaso is, Pacaso is effectively connecting
03:27aspiring second homeowners with these empty second homes that are sitting around the world
03:34in the same way that Airbnb connected aspiring travelers with empty bedrooms.
03:40And this leads me to another question because for ownership and international ownership and thinking
03:46about vacation homes or second homes, what started being very popular a few decades ago in Mexico
03:52was fractional time and timeshares. It all began with timeshares. You might tell me if I'm correct
03:58or not. And this was a different type of ownership than the co-ownership that you offer today. But that
04:07was the first possibility of this huge market that you're talking about. So in that sense,
04:13why have people left and started going into co-ownership? Or why is it that you think it is going to be
04:22the future choice? Well, I think timeshares are very different products. A timeshare,
04:31when people are thinking about timeshares, they're thinking about the hotel timeshare. This is a new
04:36concept that Pacaso is largely pioneering around the globe. And we've become the global leader in
04:43this category. We operate in about 40 destinations around the world. We've raised 250 million
04:51dollars of equity capital from leading investors. And I think the reason why this is happening now,
04:59as opposed to in the past, is largely a function of a couple of major trends. The first trend is around
05:08the sharing economy. The sharing economy has become mainstream thanks to companies like Uber or Airbnb
05:17or DoorDash. A second big trend is around housing affordability. Home prices are expensive and they're
05:25just getting more expensive as time goes on, not less. So people are looking for creative, smarter ways to
05:32pull their resources together and afford more home than they would otherwise be able to afford on their
05:38own. And the final thing that I think is driving this co-ownership trend is work from home.
05:45You just mentioned the size of Pacaso today. I want to have you tell us a little bit about how this has
05:51been growing and your growth expectations in the near future.
05:56Yeah, it has been a wild ride. I mean, we're really fortunate to have a great team and a really
06:05strong product that really resonates well with our customers. So we've been fortunate to grow very
06:11quickly in a short period of time. So we expect a lot of growth and we're really excited about it,
06:17especially the international part of our business.
06:20I'm going to go back to that in a little bit. But I want to talk about your profile,
06:25because you've had this entrepreneurial seed since you were a kid, from what I understand.
06:31And you sold birdhouses when you were a kid. And it seems that real estate has been sort of in your
06:38heart and mind all along. And then you began in the business when you were 17. So this has been a long
06:46run. It's not like you started yesterday with Pacaso. That's what I'm saying. But what has
06:51changed? Because you have so much experience in the business. What has changed in these past years
06:57in the in the real estate business that has surprised you? You were talking about some trends,
07:02and I know that those have changed. But why is that thing that really amazes you today,
07:09that when you began, it was not even imaginable? We created Pacaso to enable people to live better
07:17lives. And that is a mission and a purpose that is is relevant in good markets, bad markets,
07:26doesn't matter, right? Because the the the clock of life continues to tick and we all aspire to live
07:33better lives. And that's what Picasso helps people do. But over the course of the last few years,
07:39I would say the thing that is unique about what's happened in the real estate market is is really
07:46was originally triggered by the interest rate increase. We went from an environment where
07:50interest rates were very low to an environment where interest rates approximately three X from
07:56their all time low, which caused transaction volume in the real estate market to slow down.
08:03The other thing that we've seen over the course of the last couple of years is that
08:06many people gravitate towards real estate during turbulent times because it's such a good hedge
08:14against inflation and volatility in the broader markets. And that's largely because real estate is
08:22a hard asset that is less liquid than owning a public stock in the public markets. And therefore,
08:28the volatility is much less. So if you look at how real estate has appreciated over time,
08:34for the last 80 to 100 years, real estate in the US has appreciated on average by almost 6% per year. So
08:44I think about this product as a way to both live a better life and invest in that for you and your
08:51family, while having your money parked in a safe asset that tends to go up in value over time.
08:59And this leads me to another question that I had, because you mentioned uncertainty and we are
09:05living in complicated times. And we are actually leaving a migration narrative in North America that
09:12has complicated businesses and put a lot of things on hold. So how can this affect the prospect of the
09:20amazing growth that you've had in the past few years? How are you also dealing with this so that it
09:25doesn't stop that growth? One of the things that's interesting about our business, as I mentioned
09:31just a moment ago, is it is it is an alternative, it's a less expensive, lower risk, lower hassle
09:40alternative to the thing that we replace. And the thing that we replace is whole home ownership. So whether
09:48it's a I think we would probably be growing faster if if there was less global uncertainty. And if we
09:55were in a lower interest rate environment, for sure, I do think that would fuel more growth for us.
10:00That being said, I think that we're also benefiting from the fact that this is a smarter, safer,
10:08you know, lower entry point alternative to the thing that we replace, which is whole home ownership.
10:14Let's talk about the resale market, because that's important for Picasso and the owners in who are
10:20investing in you. So how are you guys dealing with that? How do you see that positively growing or not?
10:28We've created a global resale market that enables people to sell their unit in a Picasso home,
10:37meaning if you buy one eighth or one quarter of a home through Picasso and three or four years from now,
10:43you decide you want or need to sell. You can sell just your portion of the home. You don't have to
10:50to sell the whole home. And finally, why Mexico? Why now?
10:56Well, first, in terms of Mexico as a destination market, we have we have two concepts that we think
11:04about in the Picasso world. We have feeder markets, which are the locations where our customers live,
11:10where their primary residence is. And then we have destination markets, which are the destinations
11:16where people visit for their vacation home. In terms of Mexico as a feeder market, we have a lot of
11:22Mexican high net worth Mexican families that live in Mexico that want to own properties in locations where
11:30Picasso operates. So San Jose del Cabo does tend to be a destination that Mexicans are interested in.
11:39But but also places like Colorado or Southern California. We have a lot of Mexican families that
11:46are interested in these types of destinations. And as I mentioned before, we are the easiest and smartest
11:53way to own a luxury home if you live in Mexico and you want to own a property in one of these these locations.
12:01Awesome. Thank you so much for your time.
12:03Gracias también por habernos acompañado. Muy buena tarde.
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