The jewel of the Indian Ocean may be heaven but, Peter Swain asks, is it good value for money?
As a tropical paradise, Mauritius has it all: pristine Indian Ocean beaches, gorgeous weather, friendly locals, world-class golf courses, and for potential property buyers, a favorable tax regime.
Mark Twain remarked: ‘You get the idea that Mauritius was made first, and then heaven’.
The island is popular with the celebrity crowd. Along with TV royalty, Tess Daly and Vernon Kay, and the real thing, a loved-up Prince Harry and Chelsy Davy, a succession of French Presidents from Chirac to Sarkozy has favored the island with their glitzy presence in recent years.
The French connection on the island is strong. Le tres jolie Club Med has just launched La Plantation d’Albion, a collection of 44 luxury two-, three-, and four-bedroom detached villas built next to their high-end ‘5 trident’ resort.
Each single-storey home has direct access to the ocean, its own pool and poolside pavilion. Ideal for families and entertaining, the style is a fusion of French chic and Far Eastern elegance.
But starting at €992,000 (£900,000) for the two-bedroom model, all this Gallic bonhomie comes at a price. ‘These villas appeal to lifestyle buyers rather than investors,’ says Club Med Chairman, Henri Giscard d’Estaing. Twenty have so far sold, four to Britons.
Most buyers have gone for the 8-year leaseback option: during the six weeks a year they use their villa, they can take full advantage of all Club Med’s free facilities, including pools, the nightclub and restaurants. The other 46 weeks, the villas are earning rent that Club Med estimate equates to a 5.5% return.
A generation of British honeymooners has found the 11-hour flight from London to the 35-mile long island of Mauritius, worth every penny. One of their favourite destinations is the colonial-style, ocean-front Le Telfair Hotel Golf and Spa Resort.
Built just up the hillside from the hotel, at the southern end of the island, Villas Valriche is another development aimed at heavy hitters. There are 133 villas in the first phase, of which about 100 have been sold, with half just about ready to move into by Christmas.
Overlooking both the championship Chateau golf course and the sea, the location is quite simply one of the best on the island. Well-equipped, elegant two-bedroom villas, particularly popular with South African buyers, start at $1,178,000 (£720,000). Sales over the last 18 months have been slow so now is a good time to make them an offer.
The only blot on the island’s eco-copybook is the dodo, or to be more precise the lack of dodos, wiped out by European settlers in the 17th-century. When the worldwide credit crunch hit in 2008, sightings of foreign buyers became almost as rare of those of the legendary flightless bird. So this year the government has allowed lower priced schemes to be launched.
Emerald Heights is literally just getting off the ground, with 24 apartments costing from €208,000 (£188,000), and 12 villas starting at €597,000 (£538,000) in the first phase. 300 units are planned in total.
A mile from the coast, with great views, the planned facilities such as pools, small shops and a beach club look stylish. 61-year-old cross border financial adviser, John Mather, and his wife Lilia are buying a ritzy five-bedroom villa here for €1.1 million (£990,000).
‘Mauritius is a great place to watch the recession from,’ he says, ‘with no banking crises, a capable and friendly workforce, and a favorable tax regime.’ Within government-designated areas aimed at foreign buyers, there are no capital gains, wealth or inheritance taxes, plus the bonus of automatic residency.
John chose Emerald Heights because, ‘it’ll have a full concierge service and technology like high-speed internet access we’ve come to rely on in the West.’
He calculates he’ll shell out a third of the tax he pays in the UK and the cost of living is about a third of ours, so he can live in Mauritius much more cheaply.
John and Lilia’s grown-up children live in London, Australia and New Zealand so, ‘we’ll be halfway between them all.’ They plan to retire to Mauritius, ‘I want life before death,’ quips John.
Construction on another lower-priced scheme is nearly finished. Port Chambly, near the island’s capital, Port Louis, is a Mediterranean-style village, built around a river estuary. Local Mauritians have bought most of the 230 waterside townhouses and apartments, with just 30 reserved for foreign buyers.
The developers have created a village square, the Place du Campanile, at the heart of this community, complete with an Italian café, bell tower and 36-room boutique hotel. A jazz festival is planned to help integrate the village with the local community.
The €250,000 (£225,000) to €400,000 (£362,000) one- and two-bedroom apartments have broadband, wi-fi, satellite TV, air conditioning and electric shutters as standard.
The Mauritian market was boosted a couple of years ago by political uncertainty in nearby South Africa. Mark Harvey of agent Knight Frank thinks the appeal to British buyers of the country hosting next year’s soccer World Cup is set for a resurgence.
‘Politically, South Africa has settled down in the last six months and anyone looking for a degree of luxury and guaranteed winter sun would be well advised to take a look.’
Harvey thinks it has a greater variety of property than Mauritius. ‘South Africa has ocean front, golf course, safari park, cosmopolitan cities like Cape Town, casinos at Sun City, the Garden and Wine routes. Mauritius really only has developments next to the beach, some with a golf course.’
Security is obviously a major issue for British buyers in South Africa so most prefer to buy on developments like Pearl Valley, 45 minutes from Cape Town, in the Winelands district.
A spacious 4,000sq foot, three-bedroom, three-bathroom resort lodge, with full air-conditioning, under-floor heating and a barbecue area costs just £366,000 at Pearl Valley, getting on for half the cost of the equivalent property in Mauritius. Plots of land on the Jack Nicklaus golf course, which hosts South African Open, start at £95,000.
‘Mauritius may be paradise,’ says Harvey, ‘but if you’re comfortable with the political climate, South Africa could represent better value for money.’
Club Med: www.villas-chalets.clubmed.com +33 130 830335
Villas Valriche: www.villasvalriche.com 020 7584 3050
Emerald Heights: www.emeraldheightsmauritius.com 0207 590 1624
Port Chambly: +230 247 3224
Pearl Valley: www.pearlvalleygolfestates.com +27 21867 8000