Evergreen Homes & Investments - Worldwide Property

The islands of Cape Verde or Cabo Verde offer property investors a wealth of reasons to invest. Cape Verde is based off the west coast of Africa. Compared to many European destinations, property prices are very competitive. Property in Cape Verde is becoming popular with investors as the potential of the islands becomes clear. It's now looking certain that the Cape Verde islands will become a popular holiday destination offering excellent all year round weather and an alternative to the usual well travelled hotspots. Channel 4 recently featured Cape Verde investment property on "A Place In The Sun" and it was shown to be the top place for property investment.

Economic Reasons on why to purchase property on Cape Verde

Ideal time to invest with 70% increase in property prices expected

Being at the very beginning of Cape Verde�s infrastructural development and with lots of virgin land being developed for the first time, prices on the islands are low. There will never be a more lucrative time to invest in these islands than now. There are predictions that property prices can appreciate in excess of 70% in just 24 months. These kind of investment property returns will only be achieved by investors buying now before Cape Verde and its development becomes more well known. As soon as the potential for property investors becomes more widely known then prices will increase.

Huge tourism growth potential

The growth potential for tourism on Cape Verde is immense. All indications are that these islands will become as popular if not more so than the Canary islands over time. There are a number of natural factors that help tourism on Cape Verde in addition to the economic factors listed here. Travelling to Cape Verde is on track to become easier with direct flights timed to coincide with the completion of major parts of its tourst infrastructure such as hotels and holiday villages. With its unique blend of European and African culture, luxury accomodation, short travel times from Europe, beautiful beaches and mountain scenery and other economic features, Cape Verde will be hugely popular and in turn this will add considerable value to property on the islands.

New International Airport and Cape Verde airlines to start direct flights from UK in 2006

One of the largest indicators of the development of Cape Verde was the construction of its second and largest international airport in the capital city Praia on Santiago island. This is seen as a very positive move towards embracing the inevitable increase in tourism. In addition, the national Cape Verde airline (TACV) has announced that direct flights will commence from the UK in Nov 2006 but many more scheduled european flights are due to begin before this date. Also Cape Verde operates an "open skies" policy allowing other airlines to service Cape Verde and create competition and cheaper flights.

Very strong public and private investment - "middle-income" re-clasification

Another indicator to the expected growth of the Cape Verde islands is the huge amounts of public and private investment the islands are enjoying, resulting in the islands being re-clasified from "low-income" to a "middle-income" country. This shows that the investment into the islands is already creating change and this is expected to increase with revenues generated from tourism. Cape Verde and its government is also actively encouraging investment and development on its soil offering a 5-year initial tax holiday and a subsequent tax reduction by 50% on corporate tax (currently 30%) for the following 10 years to non-resident investors. Other incentives include an exemption on import duties for building materials for construction and private investors, who invest more than �35,000 or employ in excess of 13 nationals, are entitled to residency. These factors show the determination to establish a stable tourism based economy and also the progress that has already been made to date, shows only signs of accelerating.

Strong possibility of inclusion in the European Union

Cape Verde has a strong possibility of rapid inclusion into the EU and the benefits that brings with it, based on its relatively recent independance from Portugal and that a large portion of its inhabitants have Portugese decendants. The islands are part of Macaronesia, a grouping of four Atlantic archipelagos which also include Portugal's Azores and Madeira islands and Spain's Canary islands. The other islands automatically joined the EU with Lisbon and Madrid.

Guaranteed rental schemes in place for up to 3 years

Many new investment property hotspot locations, for example Russia and the Baltics, create a feeling of insecurity with buyers as they are unsure of the procedures, working ethics and financial security during the purchasing of their investment property. Also, mortgages are rarely available and buyers generally get the feeling that it's a 'lottery' and that they may or may not reap the rewards from their investment. Cape Verde offers a more secure environment in which to invest, much of that is due to its government and its supportive views towards investment. Cape Verde offers many of the features you would expect from a tried and tested Spanish investment but at much lower prices.

Local currency is fixed to the Euro

Since 1998, the exchange value of the Cape Verde Escudo has been fixed, firstly to the Portuguese Escudo and subsequently, to the Euro ( 1Euro = 110.265CVEsc ). This has obvious benefits and is seen as an initial step to ultimately adopting the Euro.

A multi-party stable democracy, supportive of foreign direct investment

The Cape Verde islands were discovered by the Portuguese in 1460. Over time African blood mixed with the blood of the Portuguese, English and French to create the Cape Verdean people. In 1975, after more than five hundred years of union, the Cape Verdeans were given independence from Portugal. Government control was then passed to the 'Partido Africano de Independencia de Cabo Verde' (PAICV) under a single party, leftist regime, this remained the case until 1991, when the newly formed political party, the 'Movimento para a Democracia' (MPD), won the first multiparty democratic national election. A further democratic election in 1996 returned the MPD to power, however, in 2001, a much-transformed PAICV was elected back into government after 10 years in opposition.

Cape Verde is a socially and politically stable country with all political parties (whether in government or in opposition) supporting macroeconomic and reform policies recommended by the IMF and the World Bank. Policies are followed to take control of public spending, reduce domestic debt, privatise parastatal companies and improve social services. All political parties are determined to attract foreign private investment, particularly into the development of the tourism sector.

According to the United Nations Development Programme in 2003 and 2004, Cape Verde was a middle-income country, with the fourth highest Human Development Index (which takes into account various factors, such as GDP per capita, life expectancy, adult literacy, education etc) of all African nations behind only the Seychelles, Mauritius and Tunisia.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Country Profile for Cape Verde of 2004, it reports "Since independence there has been no significant incident of civil unrest in Cape Verde, and changes of government have occurred peacefully. Also the army has never taken an active role in politics. The geographical isolation of the islands means that conflicts in the West African region have negligible impact. Violent crime is not common. The justice system and local institutions are relatively strong by the standards of most African countries and corruption, whilst not unknown, is not a preoccupying concern."