August: The Future Of Luxury Holiday Property Ownership

Dunod began her career studying law, before venturing into consultancy. However, coming from a family of entrepreneurs it was no surprise she possessed an innate business acumen. Dunod was demystified by the existing holiday home ownership model, acknowledging the pain points, such as burdensome costs and language barriers, coupled with the fact most properties are only used for 35 days a year. Spotting a gap in the market, she met Nico Watzenig, an emerging interior designer, who became her co-founder at August upon its launch in 2018. “Nico is excellent at building brands. I'm really good at understanding real estate: how you buy, how you structure it, how you deliver an experience. And that's how our combination works really well.” 

August offers end-to-end service, purchasing, renovating, and managing their growing portfolio of properties. The team meticulously selects each property, cherry picked for its history and character, reflective of its unique surroundings. Homes are grouped into a series of ‘Collections’ to reflect a series of the August clients' lifestyles: from cosy cottages in The Cotswolds to sprawling villas in Tuscany and slick city apartments in Paris. August is also passionate about supporting local artists and artisans, giving them a platform through August’s expertly curated homes.

How has August evolved?

We began as an interior design company. We were working on a number of hotels across Europe, and a number of single interior design projects in London. A lot of those clients started to approach Nico and I, because they knew we understood the French and Spanish market really well. 

Can you tell us how the August model came about?

It started from looking at the families that we were helping. One of them had been trying to buy a house for three years, making offers and losing money in the process. Others were on the verge of divorcing because of the renovation process. It was costing them 50 times what they had planned, and it was just so painful. We know those markets: we know how to buy, and we know how much it needs to cost with our experience in France and Spain.  It was bringing our expertise, making it way more hassle-free for someone, where we can buy, we can design, we can renovate, and we can deliver.

Tell us more about the idea of fractional ownership?

As we started to speak to owners, we realised that a lot of them couldn't really decide where to own and being locked in one place was not what they wanted. That's where fractional ownership makes sense. Luxury is about owning a share, while experiencing and being immersed in those cultures too, but not just one. So with that trend in mind, we thought, let's take fractional ownership to another dimension, and not do just on one property, but five. And that's when the August model was born. We figured,  let's get an average of four families to one home. 

How do you vet your properties to ensure they meet the August standards?

That's a big process. We have a team just for buying properties, who buy something like 50 a year. We have a very long list of criterias to meet. What we are ready to do is renovate to create an August home. We're not renovating because we want to create value on the real estate. It happens automatically, but that's not the reason why we do it. We're so adamant about the lifestyle we're going to deliver, and we will not compromise on that. We want to create a home that feels like the region. So, we want an old property with old features that are preserved. We want the right number of bedrooms and bathrooms. We want a layout set up for hosting, space flowing in the indoor house and outdoor living. We want that specific outdoor kitchen because we know the customer is going to cook a lot. The location and views are something you cannot change. It's very, very strict. We have very small parameters on where we buy. In Paris, in some arrondissements, it's down to just a few streets. Sometimes it’s also an intangible feeling you have when you enter a home. You just have that feeling where it feels comfortable. All the August homes need to have that, or the potential of having that.

Tell us about your different ‘Collections’?

We have two types of collections. The city properties are Pied-à-Terre. Pied-à-Terre was born because a lot of our owners love travelling to Europe and to be in the middle of things and jump from one capital to the other. 

And then we have the Villa collections, which is what we started with. The most popular one being Signature. Essentially, if you close your eyes and you imagine a holiday home in France or in Tuscany, that's what it is. It's the three-to four-bedroom villas with big living rooms, big wooden tables, where you're going to host everyone. You have a summer kitchen, and you have a nice view. It's so easy to go to the villages where you can go to the farmer's market. We also have Premium, which has  more four- five bedrooms. And then we have Prime, which has five-six bedrooms.

Are there any specific properties at the moment that you are most excited about?

We're designing a really great Tuscan townhouse. It’s on the top of these rolling hills, and we need to rethink all the outdoor space. The home is really old, and of course it's a big redecoration, but I'm really pushing the team every three months. We’re looking for more local artists. So here at that home, we're implementing a lot of new designs that we had in mind. I'm really excited for this one. I think a lot of the work that we've done in the past six months will come to life in that home.

How do you approach design, keeping a consistent thread throughout the properties?

There is the local look and feel. We need to work with local artists, we need to work with authentic features, we like to work with certain colours. We must have specific floors in the south of France. We want to have terracotta floors in Tuscany. What I really want to get to is that when you see a Tuscany home, you know, it's an August Tuscany home. 

What’s next for August?

August has always been a lifestyle brand, it's not just real estate. Now every region has its own scent; we’re creating the soap. We’ve got our first olive oil too, because we have so many olive trees to manage in Tuscany. It's all about putting the focus on those local communities, local products and local flavours. I think it's also that element for our property owners of, when you're not there, it's that little taste of Tuscany when you get home. You may not be there for a while, but you can keep that joy on home soil as well. So that's a nice element. I also want to have our own umbrellas with colours to reflect the different destinations. 

Learn more about August here.