Cape Verde Property

Horizon Property Group have access to an extensive range of new developments on the Cape Verde Islands. Here’s an example of what you are likely to pay for a studio apartment – just 88,000 euros!

Studio apartment in Santa Maria, Sal Island

Specifications
Ref: SA-276-0
District: Espargos
Region: Sal
Complex: Vila Verde
Brief description
Penthouse studio apartment on the Atriplex complex, part of the new Vila Verde Resort on Sal.
Price: 88.000 Euros

After setting up in 1999, Horizon Property Group S.L have gone on to become the largest independent property specialist on the Canary and the Cape Verde Islands. They’re one of the fastest growing agencies on Cape Verde, providing new homes and smart investments to clients from all areas of Northern Europe.

They now have some of the best value properties for sale on Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and the Cape Verde Islands.

Extremely professional, renowned for their comprehensiveness and efficiency, they’re recognised by various international organisations – the National Association of Estate Agents; the Federation of Overseas Property Developers; and FIABCI (the International Real Estate Federation).

Horizon Property now employ over 30 permanent staff, including a dedicated marketing department, all working meticulously to provide a first class service to the client, from their offices in the Canary and Cape Verde Islands.

Their business has been built on a foundation of goodwill between themselves and their clients. They’ve established an enviable reputation for being as friendly as they are professional. Customer satisfaction is paramount for the group – with positive word of mouth, generating more and more clients, every year.

Their offices on Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Cape Verde are staffed by people from all over the globe, all of whom speak English. Most of the staff are permanent residents on the islands with years of experience and a wealth of knowledge selling residential and commercial property to individuals and investors.

Despite the company’s rapid success and growth, they still provide a level of service that you’d normally expect from a smaller more intimate company. Clients are looked after on a one-to-one basis and guided step by step through the whole process, from initial enquiry to eventual purchase and beyond.

Horizon Property pride themselves on their relaxed but professional manner. They’ll listen carefully to your exact needs, with no pressure whatsoever, and do everything they possibly can to find a home or investment that suits you perfectly.

The Horizon Property Group have built up relationships with numerous strategic partners over the years, greatly facilitating the purchase process for both themselves and their clients. These partnerships with leading Spanish and UK companies enable them to provide a first class tailored service to all their customers.

BBVA (Spanish Bank)

BBVA are a leading Spanish bank, with offices all over mainland Spain and the Canary islands. Through this collaboration, Horizon can offer complete finance packages individually tailored to provide loans or mortgages for UK investors in new developments in both the Canary and Cape Verde islands.

Currencies Direct
Currencies Direct are a leading foreign exchange specialist, offering the best rates of foreign exchange for overseas property purchases. Through this collaboration Horizon can help clients to move their funds quickly and inexpensively.

Online services
They now provide an efficient call back service whereby you simply type your questions into a box on the website and they immediately call you back with all the relevant information you require. The lines are open 9:30am to 5:30pm Monday to Friday.

So, if you need independent advice on any aspect of buying or selling a property on Cape Verde contact them today. You’ll be guaranteed a quick, straightforward and efficient service with a strict “no hard sell” approach.

São Vicente (Portuguese for “Saint Vincent”) is located between the islands of Santo Antão and São Nicolau. It’s famous for the “Baia das Gatas” Music Festival and also for its cricket team.

It covers an area of 227 Km² and is home to the largest bay and the best natural port in Cape Verde. São Vicente is one of the most developed of Cape Verde’s northern islands. It’s also the second most populous island of Cape Verde, with around 70,000 people living here.

São Vicente has a warm, dry climate, with average annual temperatures that range from 68 °F (20 °C) to 77 °F (25 °C).

With its perfect climate, good infrastructure and beautiful natural landscape, São Vicente has huge investment potential. Buying property here, be it a villa, apartment, off-plan or new development, can be an extremely lucrative investment.

São Vicente is volcanic in origin and although significant erosion has taken place, some craters still exist. The highest peak on the island is Monte Verde (green mountain), which climbs to an altitude of 774 metres. It’s located on the northeast-central part of the island and is now registered as a National Park.

The main town of Mindelo is the second largest in the Cape Verde islands. It’s an important business centre, well served with hotels, restaurants and bars etc. It can be accessed by air or sea.

Mindelo became an important port of call during the period when maritime travel was fueled by coal. It was always heavily reliant on the British companies connected with ships, provisions and telegraphy. You can still see influence of the British presence today, through the sporting remnants of golf and cricket, which have become very popular on the island.

Mindelo was home to Cape Verde’s first high school. It’s been the centre of the literary culture in Cape Verde, for quite some time.

It’s also home to the best carnival on the Cape Verde Islands, which is marked with a distinct Brazilian influence – literally a riot of colour, noise and fun! You’ll also see many influences from golden period of the transatlantic shipping during the event.

The famous Baía das Gatas music festival is held each year in August and marks one of the most celebrated events of the year, attracting artists from various nationalities who perform at the national level

Other important festivals include the theatre festival “MindelAct”, which is the only one on Cape Verde.

Areas of interest
Apart from Mindelo, other places well worth a visit include; the beach of Baía das Gatas; as well as the beaches of Calhau and Salamansa – both areas expanding and providing modern tourist facilities.

Transport
If travelling on the island, you can easily take a taxi or rent out a car. Buses are also available for urban travel.

São Vicente is preparing itself for a huge boom in tourism and an international airport is scheduled to go into operation in the very near future.

Buying property on São Vicente
If you’re considering buying a second home on São Vicente or just investing here, you can now speak to the many English and Irish real estate agents on the island. They can help you with buying, selling and renting property anywhere on the island.
Real Estate Agents

• Horizon Property Group Blog
• Montana Roja Blog
• Aip Property Group Blog
• Homes of Cape Verde
• Cape Verde Island Property
• Cape Verde 4 Sale
• Xclusive Properties
• Redmountain Property Blog
• Cape Verde Resort Invest Blog

Santo Antão, known as “Island of the Mountains”, is the northernmost of the archipelago. It also marks the extreme west of the island group. The landscape here is regarded as the most spectacular of all the Cape Verde Islands.

This is the second largest Cape Verde Island; covering an area of 779 Km². It’s a very popular hiking location.

Fishing and paper production are the main industry on the island. Other than Portuguese (official language), the majority of the population speaks a distinctive Capeverdean Crioulo.

This paradise island has now begun attracting visitors (tourists, homebuyers, property investors) from all over the globe, all throughout the year.

Some of the most well preserved volcanic structures on Santo Antão include the Tope da Coroa Volcano and the crater of Água das Caldeiras. Towering mountains that have formed as a result of recent volcanic activity dominate the whole island.

This truly is a landscape of rare scenic beauty. It’s got massive lava piles that rise sharply on steep slopes, cut by deep ravines. Once you get here you’ll immediately be overwhelmed by the landscape’s vast magnitude.

Inland, the islanders still use bovine and horse driven “Trapiches” to produce the island’s most famous export – “Grogue”

Protected areas
The following areas in Santo Antão have been identified as national protected areas: Moroços Natural Park; Cova, Ribeira de Paúl, and Torre Natural Parks; Tope da Coroa Natural Park; and das Pombas Protected Landscape.

Getting to Santo Antão
Unfortunately, flights to Santo Antão are still quite limited. The best way to get here is to go through Sao Vicente. You can take a ferry from the port of Mindelo (Sao Vicente). It only takes about an hour.

This can be a very pleasant voyage in calm seas, with wonderful surrounding scenery. However, in rough seas, it can be quite an “adventure” – an exciting prelude to the magnificent first sighting of Santo Antao

Once on the island, you can travel across land by collective transports or by car rentals without drivers.

The ferry docks at the small port town of Porto Novo. From here, you can travel on to the towns of Ribeira Grande and Ponta do Sol.

Accommodation on Santo Antão
Finding accommodation on Santo Antão is easy, no matter what time of the year it is. The best places to look are in the municipal centers of Ribeira Grande, Porto Novo, and Paúl, where there are a growing number of hotel installations. Consult your local travel agent for more information.

Hiking/Trekking on Santo Antão
Santo Antão is a hikers paradise. A stunning mountain range, with altitudes exceeding 1500m, divides the island into two sections, north and south. The highest point on Santo Antão is Tope da Coroa at 1,979 meters. You can also explore by road. Guides are available in Ribeira Grande and Ponta do Sol.
Living on Santo Antão

Santo Antão isn’t exactly your typical holiday island, like Ibiza or Mallorca etc. It is, however, definitely worth a visit, especially if you want to just relax and get away from it all. Geographically, it’s one of the most impressive of all the Cape Verde islands. It’s also an idyllic place to live and a sound place to invest in property.
Real Estate Agents

• Horizon Property Group Blog
• Montana Roja Blog
• Aip Property Group Blog
• Homes of Cape Verde
• Cape Verde Island Property
• Cape Verde 4 Sale
• Xclusive Properties
• Redmountain Property Blog
• Cape Verde Resort Invest Blog

Maio is located between Boa Vista and Santiago. It’s the easternmost of Cape Verde’s Sotavento islands. This flat island is just 31 kms long and 25 kms wide. There are approximately 5,450 people living here.

It’s a peaceful, almost forgotten, paradise with vast deserted white sandy beaches. This is the place to go if you truly want to get away from it all.

Conditions here are fairly basic but that’s all part of Maio’s charm. You can relax sitting in a very “simple” restaurant tasting some of the delicious fresh seafood, listening to the sounds of live Capeveardean music played by the locals.

Although, tourism has not yet taken off here, Maio has great potential, both as an investment area and as a place to buy a second home.

It doesn’t have the active tourism that you’d find on Sal or Santiago but more and more people are looking for property opportunities here, as well as on Boa Vista. Astute investors will no doubt get in before foreign investors push the property prices up.

Vila Do Maio (also known as Porto Inglês) is the capital of the island and runs alongside one of the longest beaches on the archipelago. It’s a sleepy town with a huge baroque church, pastel painted houses, and streets lined with coconut palms. Strolling through this balmy haven of tranquillity, the only sounds you’re likely to hear are the occasional donkey hee-hawing.

Also worth a visit is the small town of Morro, located approximately 3 miles from Vila do Maio. It only has one main street, but is surrounded pretty coconut palms and makes for a very relaxing stroll.

Although volcanic in origin, you can see little remaining evidence of this today. This is mainly due to the influence of wind erosion.

Maio is known for its spectacular desert-like landscapes, small oases, sand dunes and many untouched natural beaches. Almost all of the island’s coastline has idyllic postcard beaches where you can swim and sunbath in complete isolation, all year round.

The only visitors you might encounter are some friendly sea turtles that come here to lay their eggs.

Maio’s sand dunes offer some excellent walking opportunities.

Maio was named by Europeans who first sighted it on the 1st of May 1460. Since then, it has prospered around salt collecting and a little agriculture, but none of the industries are now profitable.

Getting to Maio
Maio’s airport is near to the main town of Vila Do Maio. To get here you have to fly from Sal through Praia airport. There are no direct flight…yet.

All round, Maio is an incredibly peaceful location with excellent climate and spectacular beaches. It’s an ideal place for a peaceful family holiday or location to invest in a second property.
Real Estate Agents

• Horizon Property Group Blog
• Montana Roja Blog
• Aip Property Group Blog
• Homes of Cape Verde
• Cape Verde Island Property
• Cape Verde 4 Sale
• Xclusive Properties
• Redmountain Property Blog
• Cape Verde Resort Invest Blog

A recent article in the Herald Tribune – “From Cape Verde to Borneo, developers push into new areas” explains why more and more developers and home buyers are investing in a group of small windswept islands that are miles away from everywhere and prone to devastating droughts…

According to Liam Bailey, head of residential research for Knight Frank, the international real estate company, “There is pressure to discover the new location, to find the unspoiled beach and create value and outperform the market”.

Located just a few hours south of Spain’s Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Archipelago is an obvious choice. With residential property prices in Spain rising only 8.5 percent in the second quarter of 2006, compared to 14 percent in the same quarter of 2005, now looks like a good time to move further south.

The Irish have jumped at the opportunity. Recently, a group of investors (Cape Verde Development in Cork) announced plans to build more than 12,000 apartments and villas on two Cape Verde islands, as well as four golf courses. They’ve invested over €30 million in the project, which they hope will attract buyers tired of the high prices and crowds in resort areas like the Canary Islands, Spain and Portugal.

The Cape Verde islands have a lot to offer. Apart from the unspoiled beaches, crystal clear waters, perfect year round climate and relatively close proximity to the UK and Ireland, you can buy property on Cape Verde at a fraction of the cost you’d pay in Europe or the Caribbean!

According to John O’Rahilly, (sales manager for Cape Verde Development) “Waterfront property in Cape Verde can be found for just €150 per square metre, compared with between €600 and €700 per square meter for similar property in parts of Spain”. For a 65-square-meter, apartment, you can expect to pay around €100,000.

Labour is also very cheap. Day workers can be hired for as little as €200 a month, leaving you (the developer) more money to spend on importing building materials.

2006 has seen a huge rise in demand for properties in Cape Verde along with other areas like Latvia, Bulgaria and South Africa.

Almost all of the 1,400 units of Cape Verde Development’s new project were sold within days of going on sale. As predicted, the Cape Verde Islands look likely to become the “new Canary Islands” – a sound investment opportunity, if you get in at the right time.