Portugal’s $9m villas draw investors to crisis

LISBON: The $300 million investment is on the other side of the ocean from Florida, at Quinta do Lago in the Algarve region of Portugal, a country more synonymous of late with economic collapse than new real-estate projects. The villas are on sale for as much as 7 million euros ($9 million) each and a quarter have buyers, according to the developer, U.K.-based E3 Property.

Sun, sand and golf have long attracted tourists to Portugal, with the Algarve accounting for one in three visitors. At the 450 million-euro Herdade dos Salgados Resort, a sign on a fence blocking the entrance to the main hotel states that “the building company has retained this property.”

A sign and sculpture stand at the entrance to the closed Herdade dos Salgados Resort of luxury apartments, operated by ECS Capital, near Albufeira in the Algarve region. Rainwater fills a swimming pool at the closed Ocean Ville hotel complex in Albufeira in the Proenca/Bloomberg

Enlarge image Portugal’s $9 Million Villas Lure Investors Sifting Over Crisis Unfinished apartment blocks stand on a hillside overlooking luxury yachts in the marina at Albufeira in the Algarve region. Photographer: Mario Proenca/Bloomberg

“The recession was very strong, but based on our sales in Portugal, we now feel there’s a strengthening of the prime property market,” said Mark Lenherr, who runs the company. Sun, sand and golf have long attracted tourists to Portugal, with the Algarve accounting for one in three visitors. As property prices fall after the overbuilding of hotels and resorts that never filled up, investors are now picking over the debris from Europe’s financial crisis, including funds acquiring soured commercial mortgages from banks and a Saudi sheikh returning to the market.

Algarve

region.

Photographer:

Mario