One of the first opportunities for foreigners to own property in Cuba is just around the corner.
When a new project launches later this year, it will lay the founding stone of the Carbonera Country Club, the island’s first high-end resort with a PGA golf course.
‘Cubans are keen to emphasise that their island has so much more than the other Caribbean islands,’ says Andrew Macdonald, chief executive of the company in charge of developing the resort, Esencia Hotel & Resorts. ‘Not only is the medical and educationalinfrastructure excellent, but it’s culturally rich, too.’
The development is a result of the Ministry of Tourism’s plans to raise the raise the bar on its tourist product for the discerning market. ‘For an island the size of Britain, it’s amazing that there’s only one golf course,’ adds Mr Macdonald.
Based on a plot of 420 acres on Cuba’s north coast, an hour’s drive from Havana and overlooking the Florida straits, the development will include 650 apartments and 165 villas for sale. Exact details are being finalised, but sales agents Savills quote a starting price for a one-bedroom apartment of £70,000, rising to £150,000 for a three-bedroom apartment.
‘The villas are likely to be between 350 square metres and 500 square metres with prices starting from £650,000,’ says head of global resorts David Vaughan (020–7016 3740).