Construction Update (9)

As you can see from the image, last week was an exciting one for Cor di Mar. With a great BIG BANG down went the cliff. By now all of the machinery we have so painstakingly described is making its way down to begin ground works, now much closer to sea.
Is this grass not the single most resistant natural fibre you have ever seen!?

Cape Verde, Mars

NASA is publishing impressive images from the Cape Verde promontory... i've heard local climate is not as perfect as Cape Verde's.

Rental Returns and guarantees - Ponta Bicuda

I’ve had a very interesting evening last night with a friend who works for a European hotel powerhouse. We’ve used our time to discuss developments, returns and rental revenues in two different fronts; the hotel and the residential.
The hotel is simple and straightforward: the income depends on the hotel quality, on the capacity to generate revenues from tourism, business and city travel – the glass is most of the times half full with the sales to professional operators (tourist packages, meetings, symposiums and so on), creaming the milk for the other half with direct sales and more expensive channels.
The residential is a different issue: One can’t guarantee a steady income, as there are no professional structure to half fill the glass. It always depends on the local rental market for permanent residents and on the weekly rental for tourists, and the weekly rental depend on factors like cheap flights availability (on the hotel packages this is not an issue because the flight is part of the package and was previously negotiated for a cheap price), knowledge of the place and management quality.
I am glad we have the five star Tiara hotels on our Ponta Bicuda resort; otherwise it would be impossible to guarantee a steady income. I just don’t comment on the way some do it!

Gearing Up!

Thanks to Helder Ribeiro, Design Resorts who has just returned from a long stay in Cape Verde and has brought us all the "in-loco" information, with pictures to boot!
It seems like all of Cape Verde is gearing up for the changes that are so iminent right now. For example, in order to adequately handle all the new visitors expected to start landing at The International Airport in Santiago Island, construction works are taking place to enlarge the VIP terminal and add a new parking facility. Completion is expected before year-end.

The Cape Verde government as well as the Fond Regional de Development de la CEDEAO are underwriting the costs for constructions.

Congrats Cape Verde!

Cape Verde Scored well in the 2008 Heritage Foundation (a Washington DC Think Tank) and WSJ Index of Economic Freedom Report. In a total universe of 162 countries Cape Verde came in 24 percentage points higher than the total average when it came to property rights and also achieving high marks in monetary freedom and investment freedom. Entrance into the WTO, as previously reported on our blog, will ensure Cape Verde scores improve all around!

Invest in a Second Home in Brazil

Brazil has in recent times been the word coming out of many an investor’s mouth, and the theme of a few of our own posts of late. Here are a few of the reasons why:

1. Currently Brazil is a Buyers Market: Lots of land for sale with prices which remains reasonably low
2. 100% free hold ownership (in other words full ownership) for foreigners, which in many countries is not the standard
3. Steady Economy and low inflation
4. Falling Interest Rates
5. Increasing Real Estate financing
6. Steadily increasing number of tourists7. Climate, 7,400 km of coastline, a beautiful tropical rainforest.....

Construction Update (8)

So its true! The grass is greener at Ponta Bicuda! As you can see ground work continues steadily and with a closer look, the terrain is really beginnning to take form.

In an attempt to really communicate construction progress we have asked our double-duty on- site Project Manager and photographer extraordinaire to take pictures from precisely the same spot everytime so that we can monitor progress more specifically.