The Hotel Golfinho, once a leading tourist destination in the Lagos area, perched over Dona Ana beach, dominated the coastal skyline in the era of cheap package tours and sun and sand holiday breaks.
Abandoned years ago and then put up for sale, the building was vandalised and became a relic of a disappearing tourism model, overtaken by the current trend for ‘sustainable’ and 'eco' marketing misnomers.
A 'new hotel concept' has been announced by the inexperienced IR Group which wants to make money by refurbishing the Golfino's carcass, creating apartments and selling them to investors.
There are 269 rooms to work with and buyers will acquire these as investments from which they can earn 7% per year, claims the company which has renamed the Golfino, the Lagos Beach Resort and SPA.
IR Group says it has been “conducting negotiations with some of the most experienced hotel management companies in order to find the right partners for Lagos Beach Resort and SPA and to assure the appropriate know-how.”
The hope is to select "a top-10 hotel management company" to run the new concept.
This is an old style model with investors piling in, enjoying their 14-days-a-year and reaping the benefits of a ‘guaranteed’ 7% return from holiday rentals. The other promise is that, after five years, the company will buy back your apartment at the price you paid for it.
If things go wrong, neither of these scenarios is likely as, as investors are keenly aware, prices - and markets - go down as well as up.
The company organising the refurbishment, promises a restaurant, health club, spa, indoor and outdoor pool, a Zen garden, a conference room, a kid`s club and a car park all overlooking Praia Dona Ana, once voted the best beach in the world and now a bastardised ‘tourism offering’ with dredged sand and an unnecessary sea wall build by the environment agency for reasons best known to itself.
The refurbishment work, to turn the carcass into swish apartments, will begin in 2018 and will finish “before the summer of 2020,” assuming enough units are pre-sold to fund the building works or that a bank will fund the conversion.
The Lagos Beach Resort & Spa is a major project but only the second major development one that the IR Group has become involved in. The first, scheduled to open this winter, is the Mercure Ocean in Sesimbra.
Nothing wrong with this beong 'only the second project' as much of the media highlights. The company has been involved in property since the late 80's and, assuming the Golfino's purchase price was a bargain, they should make good money. However, the 'no condo fees for 15 years' promise is deeply worrying.
Lagos Beach Resort and SPA - investment conditions:
Hotel Management Programme
Freehold apartments
Guaranteed profitability of 7% up to 10%
Bank Guarantee issued by Portuguese Bank
Optional buyback after 5 years for 100% of the price
No condominium and maintenance costs for 15 years (save about €6.000/ year)
No acquisition costs (save about €13.000 - €30.000)
An offer of 14 days of annual leave (save about €2.000/ year) for 15 years
See https://www.irgroup.pt/lagos/o-resort
UPDATE from IR Group
"There has been a recent update of the project and the Lagos Beach Resort & SPA will have 279 tourist units. Although we are marketing some units, as a real estate investment product, IR Group will keep 51% of the business."
