Finnish Fund Invests €260 Million in the Algarve

25 August 2017

The resort in Loulé will have apartments and villas going for up to 2.5 million euros and the first Viceroy hotel in Portugal

Almost 30 years after buying 150 hectares of land for the construction of a luxury tourist complex in Loulé, Grupo Pontos, a Finnish fund, is finally going ahead with the project. Construction on the Ombria Resort has begun and its doors will open in 2019.

“It will be different from many of the other resorts in the area. With a quiet and relaxed environment, we want our guests and owners to interact with other members of the local community and to connect with nature,” Julio Delgado, CEO of the group, told Dinheiro Vivo.

The complex will include a hotel with 76 rooms and 65 tourist residences. It will also have an 18-hole golf course, a clubhouse, a conference centre, five restaurants, a spa, an astronomical observatory, heated swimming pools and other leisure and wellness facilities.

“If everything goes as planned, we expect the first phase, which includes the infrastructure – roads, water networks, electricity, sewerage, telecommunications, street lighting and landscaping – the golf course, which has been under construction since October 2016, and the Viceroy hotel complex and residences, to be completed by the end of 2019. ”

The first phase has an estimated cost of one hundred million euros. The other two still have no scheduled starting dates because they are still dependent on licensing. When they start, the Finnish group’s investment will rise to €260 million. The private equity fund financing 60% of the project with its own funds, which “attests to the commitment of the investor to carry out the project within the stipulated deadlines and with the high quality,” the executive stated.

With Portugal in the mouths of tourists and the Algarve among the destinations with high levels of real estate investment by foreigners, the group knows exactly which investors to cultivate. “The markets that we have targeted for the Ombria Resort are, above all, customers and investors from Northern and Central Europe, namely the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Benelux and Scandinavia, as well as the United States, the Middle East and Asia, without forgetting Portugal “, says Julio Delgado.

And, after so many years solving environmental issues and bureaucratic hurdles, time does not seem to be a problem anymore. “The opening of the first phase is expected by the end of 2019. We do not believe that the tourism boom will have slowed before then, because the concept of our project is unique, directed at a very specific public,” says the official, stressing that the idea is to offer an innovative design. “It is a new generation tourist development that aims to establish itself as a reference of the sector in the Algarve and Southern Europe. Its unique location, its natural surroundings with hills and streams, and the contact with the true Algarve allow us to position our resort in a differentiating way. ”

The residential real estate aspect is one of the biggest bets. Some of the tourist residences will be under the management of Viceroy Hotels & Resorts, which will also operate the hotel. There will be “different apartments, townhouses and luxury villas, ranging from studios to six-bedrooms. Sales figures could range between €300,000 to above €2.5 million. ”

Original Story: Diário de Notícias – Ana Margarida Pinheiro

Translation: Richard Turner