Vilamoura World - building starts in January 2016

23 October 2015

Vilamoura World, the name for a series of developments that aims to double the population of the tourist resort, has started to build as the master developer revealed today that it is to invest €10 million on phase II of L'Orangerie, a golf development.

The 400 hectare development announced in early September includes the construction of over 5,000 residential units in 18 themed development areas over the next 10 years.

The entire Vilamoura development, and the developer, are owned by Dallas based Lone Star which is looking to sell off the various building projects for €1 billion.

In the meantime the development management company is starting the ball rolling by investing in one of the smaller projects available.

At the launch of Phase II of L'Orangerie project, Paul Taylor (pictured below) of Vilamoura World said that construction of the project is scheduled to start in January 2016 with residential units for sale off-plan.

"We have had great interest internationally - especially from British, Swedish, German and Chinese investors - in the Vilamoura development projects since the Masterplan was released,” said Taylor who added that “the recovery of the Portuguese economy is attracting global attention and the investment we are making here reinforces the reference position of Portugal as a real estate investment market in Southern Europe."

There has been no word on the environmental aspects of the Vilamoura World development. Despite local eco-groups such as Almargem complaining first to the government and then to the EC, it is now unlikely that the project can be reversed.

In April last year, Almargem slammed the original Vilamoura project, believing that the government's support of had authorised the destruction “one of the biggest and best areas of Class A agricultural land in the Algarve" and lodged a complaint in May 2016 at the European Commission whcih ahs yet to respond.

The government position is that "the Secretaries of State for Tourism, Forestry and Rural Development are fully aware of the plans to destroy the farmland but were happy that the ‘countervailing measures’ were sufficient recompense for this irreversable destruction."

Vilamoura World's Paul Taylor commented, "the environmental impact is very heavy and we are trying to create a sustainable reserve, one that is environmentally friendly," adding that this is "one of the largest real estate projects in Portugal" providing "a major boost to the Portuguese economy and to the Algarve region."