THINK of holiday homes in Portugal, and you will probably conjure up an image of sprawling developments of Identikit golfing villas on the Algarve. You probably wouldn’t imagine luxurious shiny modern apartment blocks in a quaint but sophisticated enclave near Lisbon. But that is exactly what is unfolding in Cascais, Portugal’s answer to Cannes.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the fishing village of Cascais (pronounced kush-kaish) was in a sorry state. However, when King Luís I converted the Citadela into his summer residence in 1870, the aristocracy followed, building elegant palaces and mansions in their wake. Since then the town has prospered. Well-off Lisboetas spend weekends there, and famous residents include Luiz Felipe Scolari, the coach who took Portugal’s team to this year’s World Cup semi-finals; he has an oceanside penthouse apartment. Sven-Göran Eriksson is another. His seven-bedroom villa is between Cascais and Sintra, 40km (25 miles) west of Lisbon. Set on a wooded hillside overlooking the sea, it has a pool, tennis court and landscaped gardens.
The centre of Cascais is a 30-minute drive from Lisbon and bustles with sun-bleached pastel houses, museums, cafés, restaurants and shops. The Romans and the Moors left welcome evidence of their presence in the town’s beautiful architecture. The beaches attract sunbathers and surfers; the marina pulls in the yachties.
Cascais is as blessed culturally as its real estate is exclusive. In the town’s millionaires’ district, huge mansions overlooking the sea change hands for between €7 million (£4.7 million) and €10 million, but they don’t come on to the market often. Farther down the coast in Quinta da Marinha, a reassuringly expensive six-bedroom house with swimming pool, spa bath, solarium, sauna and gym is currently on the market for €3.9 million via the estate agent In’s.
With these asking prices, it is no wonder that developers have chosen Cascais as the site for a massive new development, Scala Cascais, where more than 150 flats will be built, ten minutes’ walk from the centre of town. One-bedroom apartments cost from €415,000; two-bedroom flats cost €610,000 and the four-bedroom penthouses are priced at €1.4 million. One local agent commented that the prices are on the high side — he has a one-bedroom apartment in a good block near by on the market for €240,000. Nevertheless, 70 units have already been sold without much marketing, and so far it is mostly the more expensive apartments that have found buyers — the agents tell me proudly that one of the developers has bought there (although one may assume that he received a discount). Generally, price rises in the area have been quite subdued, according to one local estate agent. He says: “This is a fairly exclusive area, but because of Portugal’s economy the market has been pretty flat in the past three years, although in the best locations properties have either kept their values or gone up. Scala is in a good area.”
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Frederico Seixas Clemente, of CB Richard Ellis, Hamptons’ representative in Portugal, says that a shortage of land in Cascais should lend a rarity factor to Scala Cascais, which will insulate prices against falls.
And the specification of the apartments at Scala is top-notch. The flats will be generously proportioned and finely finished, with an abundant peppering of luxurious accoutrements, when they are completed in mid-2008: one-bedders are about 970 sq ft (90 sq m) in size, while the four bedroom apartments will have 2,260 sq ft of floorspace and a further 2,600 sq ft of terrace. Appliances will be top-of-the-range. A private gated development, it is set in four and a half acres of landscaped gardens and will have four outdoor swimming pools, an indoor pool, a gym, sauna, Turkish bath, a concierge service and 24-hour security.
The apartments will be in five sleek modern blocks set back from the coast — with only five floors they are low-rise, but the buildings are none the less rather at odds with the leafy surrounding neighbourhood. But, hey, that’s a small compromise if you want to have Scolari as your neighbour.