Occupancy rate is the percentage of time a property is actually being used by its owners, as opposed to sitting empty.
For vacation homes owned by a single family, occupancy rates are notoriously low, often below 10-15% of the year. That means the home sits vacant for the vast majority of the time while the owner continues to pay for maintenance, insurance, taxes, and upkeep. Low occupancy is one of the biggest inefficiencies in traditional second-home ownership and a primary reason many buyers explore shared models.
GoForth, a luxury co-ownership company, dramatically improves occupancy rates by splitting each home among four families who each enjoy approximately 12 weeks of use per year. This means the property is actively enjoyed for the majority of the calendar year rather than sitting empty. The four-owner model is specifically designed to maximize personal use time while keeping each family's costs at a quarter of what sole ownership would demand.