PORTUGAL
Richard Webber compares the property markets of Portugal’s new and old island outposts.
How do the
Azores measure up to Madeira and Cape Verde?
Time to adore the Azores?
T
hink Portuguese archipelagoes and chances are Madeira, situated 260 miles north of Tenerife
and a long-time favourite of British holidaymakers and property hunters, springs to mind. If not, perhaps Portugal’s former colony, Cape Verde? Ten tropical and desert islands lying 1,300 miles further south, its year- round sunshine and white sandy beaches have seen it become an emerging tourist and property destination. Portugal’s forgotten archipelago,
however, is the Azores. Little more than specks on a map, people struggle to pinpoint the exact position of this beautiful set of islands 950 miles from Lisbon. So is it any wonder they have barely registered on the property radar and a tourism industry in its infancy? The nine volcanic islands are best
known by seafarers using them as transatlantic stopovers. Rearing from the ocean, an intriguing blend of volcanic landscapes, rolling hills and vertiginous sea cliffs, the Azores are dubbed “The Garden Islands of the Atlantic”, thanks to blankets of wild fl owers carpeting the countryside. The largest island and commercial hub is Sao Miguel, with a population of 130,000, while the smallest and most isolated, Corvo, is home to 400. But of the archipelago’s 240,000 permanent residents, only around 30 are British.
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