Vilamoura: from €280,000: Foreign homes are still hot properties: Irish buyers can't get enough of continental apartments and villas. This week two developments are being launched - one by a golf course in Portugal on the Algarve, the other in an olive grove on the Cote d'Azur in France
The good life on the Algarve beckons with a new Irish-built development planned in the Portuguese resort of Vilamoura. A mix of three-bedroom townhouses and two-bedroom apartments are on offer with prices ranging from €280,000 to €480,000.
The Irish Newlyn Group is behind the scheme, known as the Victoria Boulevard complex. Located at the heart of Vilamoura's Jardins Victoria, and standing at the edge of the Arnold Palmer-designed Victoria Golf Club, construction begins this summer with the first completions expected by the end of 2005.
The complex includes 30 townhouses and 97 apartments, but will also include two swimming-pools and a leisure club for the use of Victoria Boulevard owners, a five-star hotel and spa facilities, restaurants, bars and retail shops.
The properties will be constructed in four blocks with a mixture of pitched tiled roofs and flat roofs with parapets. A limited number of townhouses will have large roof terraces with Jacuzzis optional.
All properties will have spacious terraces, many with panoramic views over the Victoria or Millennium golf courses and of course, the surrounding area of Vilamoura.
The high specification includes fully-fitted kitchens and all the appliances as standard, a separate laundry room with washing machine and dryer and fitted wardrobes.
A service being offered by the developers is a choice of three complete furniture and soft furnishing packages tailored to buyers' style and budget.
These are very substantial homes, larger than the typical townhouse or apartment currently on offer here. The two-bedroom apartments laid out in four low-rise buildings have about 118 sq m (1,270 sq ft) of living space with prices ranging from €280,000 up to €340,000.
The three-bedroom townhouses vary in size from 180 sq m (1,937 sq ft) up to 227 sq m (2,443 sq ft). Prices for these start at €420,000 and rise to €480,000.
Victoria Boulevard is a golfer's paradise, located as it is on the edge of the new Victoria Golf Course and within walking distance of its clubhouse.
There are five other courses within the Vilamoura area including the Millennium and Laguna courses, both of which are about a three-minute drive away.
These units are only 25 minutes from Faro International Airport and a 20-minute stroll from central Vilamoura. Victoria Boulevard offers the chance to acquire a luxurious holiday home or a most comfortable permanent residence on the Algarve.
Agents Splash International Properties Ltd will be launching the Victoria Boulevard development at the Westbury hotel in Dublin on May 21st and 22nd.
Further information is available from www.splashproperties.com
