Grândola: Swiss Group Invests €200M in Real Estate Project

9 November 2017

The real estate investment group Vanguard Properties launched the first phase of a 200-million-euro investment in the village of Muda, in Grândola, a real estate project that promises to attract domestic and foreign clients.

Vanguard Properties’, a company led by a Swiss investor, Claude Berda, who made a fortune in the audio-visual area and later in Swiss real estate, new project foresees the construction of 200 villas of varied sizes, with service, retail and sports areas, near the village of Muda, on a plot of 350 hectares.

The project includes a set of about 50 semi-detached units in the centre of the village, known as Casas da Aldeia, with studios to three-bedroom houses and areas between 60 and 200 square meters, with gardens and swimming pools.

This area should have community use facilities, namely sports fields, a swimming pool, shopping area, café, restaurant, supermarket, children’s playground and chapel.

Villas and Farms

Another development will go up close to the village of Muda, called the Villas da Aldeia, a set of about 150 lots with areas between 670 and 2,300 square meters and a construction area of between 150 and 700 square meters.

The residential project also includes 43 farms – Quintas da Aldeia – with areas between four and seven hectares and a construction area of 500 square meters and another 100 square meters of verandas.

According to José Cardoso Botelho, Vanguard Properties’ general manager, the company began investing in Portugal in late 2015, when it acquired 14 residential projects covering first and second homes in Lisbon, Oeiras, Comporta and in Lagoa, Algarve. Lagoa has been under construction since last April.

“We expect to mainly Portuguese client base for the Aldeia in Muda, but we have also received expressions of interest from customers of Italian, Spanish, French, Belgian, Swiss, Brazilian, North American and Lebanese origin,” José Cardoso Botelho stated. Mr Botelho is also confident that Vanguard Properties is now the largest national developer of residential properties, with a total of 320,000 square meters of above-ground construction area.

Project in the interior, but close to the beach

José Cardoso Botelho is confident of the success of the Muda village venture, which has nothing to do with other tourism projects announced for Herdade da Comporta, noting that the investment is fully backed by Vanguard Properties’ equity.

For the mayor of Grândola, Figueira Mendes, the Vanguard Properties project is in line with what the municipality has been seeking, that is, “a more harmonious development of the municipality, that does not focus solely on a narrow strip of the coast.”

“This project is a bit inland, although it is still close to the beach, and will help to boost the traditional village of Muda. It is a contrast to other developments that some years ago began to be developed on the Alentejo coast, some of which, like the Costa Terra, Pelicano, Herdade dos Pinheirinhos and Comporta, have been inactive for some time,” Grândola’s mayor added.

“I believe that this project is more consolidated from the point of view of financing and, having been conceived by a group of companies and later acquired by a foreign investor, who naturally wants to make the investment profitable, our hope is that the investment will be concluded in due time,” Figueira Mendes stated.

Original Story: Diário Imobiliário

Translation: Richard Turner