Palheiro Golfe – Madeira Island

O grupo de cerca de 10 jovens carenciados pertencentes ao Centro Comunitário “Integrar e Desenvolver” promovido pelo Centro Social e Paroquial de Santa Cecília pertencente ao Bairro da Palmeira, visitaram o Palheiro Golfe onde tiveram a oportunidade de experimentar este magnifico desporto que é o golfe, com vários exercícios técnicos e pedagógicos leccionados pelo Profissional Edgar Rodrigues.
No final das actividades foi notória nas expressões dos jovens jogadores a satisfação, o divertimento e a vontade de repetir.”

Edgar Rodrigues
Profissional de Golf

As a second home destination, Madeira is gaining international attention – one major UK based property agency recently identified it as “one of the top 5 places in the world to buy overseas property for investment or as a lifestyle choice”.

Now is the time to buy!

For those considering an investment in a luxury home, consider the advantages:
Sub-tropical climate – warm & pleasant year round
Natural beauty – dramatic scenery, lush & colourful:known as the “Garden of the Atlantic”
Ease of access – within 3 hours flight time from most European cities, direct flights from over 40 destinations in Europe
Protected environment – 70% of the island is protected parkland & forest
Activities – wide range of sports & leisure activities
Tourist infrastructure – long known as a qulaity tourist destination, with lots to see & do
Quality of life – a friendly, safe & clean place to visit and to live in

The Palheiro Estate – the best address in Madeira:
Location – key location with easy access from the airport and to Funchal
Natural beauty – heavily-wooded hilltop location with mature forested areas, gardens and dramatic views
History – a blend of history and affluence still evident more than 200 years after its inception
Amenities – luxury accomodation, fine eating, sporting and leisure activities that together form an appealing international resort destination
Palheiro Village – an award winning development of 79 freehold apartments and villas, with central amenities and full property management services available, including property rental.

Now is the time to buy!

For further information, please contact Anne Marchington as follows:
Tel: + 351 291 794 015
E-mail: real.estate@palheiroestate.com

Further information at: http://www.palheirorealestate.com

Palheiro Property Rentals is situated on Madeira Island, renting luxury villas and apartments at very reasonable rates.

With a wide choice of Luxury Villas and Apartments we can offer you a home from home at very reasonable prices with excellent conditions. Additionaly, our guests have discounts at a wide variety of facilities. Located on a prime hilltop site overlooking Funchal, the 130 hectare Palheiro Estate has grown from an early 19th century hunting lodge and summer retreat for nobility into a sophisticated resort destination.

It is important to remember that renting a holiday home in Madeira is different from reserving a room at a hotel, bed and breakfast or resort. The benefits of renting includes having a home experience with full home advantages available to you throughout your stay. Many tenants find that renting a holiday home provides them with exceptional value.

Certificate of Excellence

Palheiro Village has been awarded the ‘Certificate of Excellence’ for the year of 2010 by Tripadvisor

To view comments by rental guests, please visit the Trip Advisor website here

Palheiro Village – Madeira Island

Holidays in Madeira are for those who like splendid scenery, as well as sub-tropical flora and fauna!

As a holiday destination, Madeira really is a class act.
Lovely Luxury Villas and Apartments with great views Palheiro Village holiday homes located outside Funchal Portugal.

Just a 15-minute drive from the airport this hotel is in an elevated location that provides stunning views of the sea as well as the city of Funchal. Added to that, the lush green gardens that surround it will have you feeling as though you’ve found paradise.

After a long and tiring day of travel, you can relax in the beautiful outdoor swimming pool as you take in the view. When you want to get a better look, get a refreshing to drink from the pool bar, sit in one of the lounge chairs, and soak it all in as you work on your tan.

When you’d like to get out for a little recreation, you can play tennis, take a fishing cruise, or play golf on the beautiful Palheiro golf course.

Foreign visitors have been coming to Madeira for trade and leisure for over 200 years. Other than hotel accommodation (and more recently, the arrival of timeshare), only a very limited supply of purpose-built apartments and houses have been available for rent or purchase.

Planned as it is for the northern European market, Palheiro Village can be said to be unique in Madeira – at least for the moment! The development team represents a strong mix of local knowledge and international experience. The development manager, architects, engineers, construction managers, landscape designers, interior designers and corporate design consultants are all highly experienced, having worked on similar, high quality developments in the Algarve over many years.

As an indicator of demand, from launch in November 2005 nearly 40% of the units in Palheiro Village have been reserved or sold – far exceeding expectations.

Prices within Palheiro Village range from €320,000 for a 1-bedroom apartment to over €800,000 for detached 3-bedroom villas.

Interest is mainly from the UK and Ireland and to a lesser extent Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, Czech Republic and locally in Portugal.

Visit the website here: www.palheirorealestate.com

Palheiro Village has been awarded a CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE for the year of 2010 by Tripadvisor.

All in all, Tripadvisor travelers rated Palheiro Village at 98%. Within the Palheiro Estate complex, the luxury five star country house hotel ‘Casa Velha do Palheiro‘ was also rated at 95%.

Madeira islands luxury premiere property rental location has a wide choice of Luxury Villas and Apartments and can offer you a true home from home at very reasonable prices with excellent conditions. Additionally, all guests have discounts at a wide variety of facilities within the Palheiro Estate.

It is important to remember that renting a holiday home in Palheiro Village is different from reserving a room at a hotel, bed and breakfast or resort. The benefits of renting includes having a home experience with full home advantages available to you throughout your stay. Very many tenants find that renting a holiday home provides them with exceptional value.

Palheiro Village has also been rated as ‘SUPERB’ in booking.com

To learn more about Palheiro Village visit www.palheirorentals.com

To learn more about the Palheiro Estate visit www.palheiroestate.com

To see Palheiro Estate videos – please visit www.palheirorentals.com/en/videos.html

ON HIS 42nd birthday last year, Jonathan Fletcher caught three giant blue marlin, the smallest weighing in at an impressive 800lbs. A perfect fishing day, but not a wildly unusual one on Portugal’s Atlantic island of Madeira, home to some supersize marine life.

Fletcher moved from Richmond to Madeira 17 years ago, swapping the Thames for ocean views. He now lives there with his wife and three young daughters. “In 1993 there was one supermarket, a poor choice of restaurants and limited nightlife,” says Fletcher. “That’s all changed. The capital, Funchal, has gone from being a quaint town to a mini city and there’s a good club scene.” He should know. When he isn’t at work as director of Palheiro Golf Club another hobby is DJing in Funchal.
A lack of sandy beaches may have held back tourism, but this dormant volcanic island is popular with repeat customers — and not only the blue rinse brigade. Activities on offer include surfing, canyoning and mountain biking on the levada trails while a new generation of design hotels, such as Choupana Hills and The Vine, welcome a younger crowd.

In February this year one month’s rainfall fell in one hour on Madeira, turning the steep, narrow streets above Funchal into rivers and resulting in landslides and the loss of 42 lives. Six months on, the island bears few visible scars. “Madeira is fully recovered,” claims Conceicao Estudante, Madeira’s secretary of tourism. “The hotel area was not affected at all by the floods and there are clear signs of recovery replacing the cancellations” FIRST RESORT COMPLETED Madeira’s first residential resort has just been completed. Palheiro Village has 79 apartments and villas priced from Pounds 269,230. The steep site is part of the Palheiro Estate, owned continuously from the 1880s by the Blandy family whose fortune came from the famously sweet Madeira wine.
Current patriarch Adam Blandy brought in builders from the Algarve’s exclusive Quinta do Lago. All properties at Palheiro have sea views and share a large communal pool. Portuguese, British, Irish and northern European buyers have bought half of the properties to date, with six families living there year-round.

“Madeira is known as a winter destination, but last year at Palheiro — the first that rentals operated — we had 94 per cent occupancy in August,” says Roger Still, of Palheiro Village. “Madeira has an even temperature without the heavy heat of the Algarve in the summer months, so is ideal for families and golfers.”

The one-and two-bedroom apartments are the most popular to rent, achieving 17-20 weeks a year on average. A week in high season in a one-bedroom apartment starts from Pounds 538 and Palheiro offers a full management service for 30 per cent of the rental price. Also on the estate are a championship 18-hole golf course, new spa and gym with indoor pool and the beautiful gardens, begun 200 years ago and painstakingly cared for by the Blandys.

Palheiro Village is Madeira’s first completed resort, but others are following. QuintadoLorde in the southeast is based around a marina and hotel with 127 apartments and villas planned and prices from Pounds 221,800. Also in the planning stages is Azulara, a development of 112 apartments and 61 villas on the slopes above Funchal.

FUNCHAL IN DEMAND Half of Madeira’s 250,000 population lives in Funchal on the south coast, close to the international airport. A three-bedroom apartment in popular areas of Ajuda and Estrada Monumental costs Pounds 248,520. Liliana Ornelas, of estate agent Ilhocasa, says Madalenas is more affordable and increasingly in demand. Fifteen minutes west of Funchal, Camara de Lobos is a good waterfront spot. Expect to pay Pounds 260,279 for a town house and Pounds 579,880 for a villa there. Prices fall dramatically on the isolated and windy north coast. Ilhocasa has a three-bedroom house in San Vicente for Pounds 132,540.

CONTACTS AND FACTFILE Palheiro Village 00 351 291 794 015; palheiroestate.com Quinta do Lorde: contact Savills 020 7016 3740; savills.co.uk/abroad Ilhocasa 00 351 291 200 990; ilhocasa.com TAP and easyJet fly from Gatwick or Stansted to Funchal Allow seven per cent for buying costs including six per cent IMT (stamp duty) Annual service charges at Palheiro Village are Pounds 2,400 to Pounds 4,880.

‘THIS ISLAND GAVE US THE GOOD LIFE’ WHEN a travel agent suggested to Roger and Hilary Still from Norwich that they try Madeira for their next holiday their first reaction was that they were not old enough. “But it certainly fitted our brief of somewhere short haul with good food and wine and no lager louts,” says Roger. “That was 2000. We loved it and have been back every year since. Madeira really does have the wrong image.”

Five years ago the Stills were close to purchasing a property in Spain when they saw an advert for Palheiro Village. “Madeira is safe, but we wanted the security of being in a gated resort,” says Roger. “For what we paid we could have bought land and built our own house, but then we would be on our own with no golf course or facilities and renting would be more problematic.”

The couple, who own a food company and are in their mid-fifties, bought a three-bedroom villa in Palheiro Village in August last year where similar property costs Pounds 579,880. Roger says: “Our English-speaking lawyer helped us to get a fiscal card and write Portuguese wills.” Call Palheiro Village on 00 351 291 795 161 or visit palheiroestate.com

Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.

Evening Standard; London (UK), Aug 25, 2010 | by Cathy Hawker

Madeira’s pretty capital Funchal has long been overlooked, says MARC DA SILVA

Renowned for its cake, wine, flowers and sub- tropical climate, Madeira has long attracted tourists all year round. However, the Portuguese island’s historic capital city Funchal is often ignored as a place to buy a holiday home.
Just under half of Madeira’s population of approximately 250,000 inhabitants live in Funchal. The city offers a calendar of cultural events and festivities for tourists and locals alike, including a carnival plus flower, wine and jazz festivals.
Funchal attracts around one million tourists a year, primarily from Britain, Germany and mainland Portugal. They are drawn by the long stretch of harbour full of fishing boats, the fine selection of botanical gardens, the colourful market and array of old streets filled with stylish boutiques and restaurants offering traditional Portuguese cuisine.
“A lot of people would feel very comfortable owning property in Madeira,” said Robin Stickells, of Madeira Properties in the Sun. “[Funchal] offers an international, cosmopolitan community that has its fair share of local residents, too. Madeira appeals to those who see this as a good thing.”
Mr Stickells added: “The big challenge is to find the purchasers who are in the market to buy a home.”
Although Funchal’s domestic property market is well-established, only a small fraction of overseas nationals own holiday homes there.
Hotel occupancy levels averaged 90 per cent during April’s Flower Festival, according to official government statistics. However, there are signs that Funchal’s holiday home market is starting to take off, buoyed by the introduction of low-cost airlines and direct flights from around Europe, Venezuela and South Africa.
Steven Worboys, of Experience International estate agency, said: “With more than one million tourists visiting this pearl of the Atlantic each year requiring accommodation, opportunity abounds for the buy-to-let market.”
In fact, enquiries for short-term rental properties in the capital increased by 52 per cent during the first three months of 2010, according to searches on holiday rental firm HomeAway’s website.
With protected conservation land making up some 70 per cent of the island, which is reasonably compact at 35 miles in length by 14 miles at its widest point, most property buyers head for Funchal.
Indeed, Funchal is where property prices are highest but the greatest buy-to-let opportunities in Madeira are to be found.
Resales typically start from around £110,000, which buys a modern one-bedroom apartment or an old-fashioned house in need of renovation or reconstruction.
Although Madeira’s property market has not gone unscathed by Portugal’s financial turmoil, the adverse economic effect on the island has been less severe than on the mainland, according to various local experts.
Philippe Moreau, the project manager of Vilagiorgi, a high-end holiday home development under construction in Funchal, said: “Due to the limited residential inventory, the Madeira property market has not suffered as much as mainland Portugal.
“Prices have not necessarily dropped but sales have been at a standstill for more than a year. More sales enquiries are starting to appear again, though.”
Roger Still, of Palheiro Estate, said: “Madeira is a fresh, new entrant into the second home market. Property prices compare well with other markets. Most of the ingredients necessary for a second homes market to establish itself in Madeira have long existed, including good location, climate, natural beauty, living conditions and visitor infrastructure.”
Mr Still was enthusiastic about acknowledging the progress made in Madeira over the past 10 years. The expansion of the international airport and a network of new roads, tunnels, marinas and health facilities have all set the scene for what he described as “the emergence of a viable second homes market”.
Madeira’s hot summers and warm winters, with temperatures averaging 21C, are ideal for avid golfers. This inspired an 18-hole,  par-72 course on the Palheiro Estate, along with a selection of luxurious holiday homes.
Palheiro was arguably the fi rst high-end residential projection conceived, designed and constructed to suit the requirements of the second homes market in Madeira. Inaugurated in late 2008, it rivals some of the best golf-led property developments of the Algarve but at a fraction of the price.

Palheiro Estate:  www.palheiroestate.com

This article authored by Marc da Silva (Daily Express) From Wednesday 1st September, 2010

Madeira is bouncing back. After February’s devastating floods, it is on a fresh drive to attract second-home buyers from Britain.

Madeira is a small island — just 30 miles long — with 250,000 residents. Located 600 miles south-west of Portugal and 360 miles off the african coast, it enjoys year-round warmth.

It has long been a favourite with Britons, especially retirees, who love its lush gardens, hillside walks along the lavadas waterways, and spectacular views from steep volcanic mountains.

The island is officially Portuguese and British tourists account for about a fifth of the 900,000 foreign visitors who arrive by air each year and the 450,000 arriving on cruise ships.

They also make up the bulk of the foreign buyers of holiday homes.

In February, Madeira hit the headlines when flash-floods and mudslides took the lives of more than 40 islanders.

Severe storms battered the south of the island and bulldozers were required to clear mud from the streets of the old capital, Funchal.

Bridges were swept away and the airport was closed. The world’s most famous Madeiran, real Madrid football star Cristiano Ronaldo, even played a charity match on the island to raise money for the relief effort. it’s estimated this will cost about £1.2bn.

However, only three months on, transport and communications are back to normal, emergency homes have been built for locals who lost their properties and easyJet has resumed flights from Britain.

Buoyed by funding from the local authorities, the island’s estate agents are advertising in the UK and worldwide to tempt foreigners back.

Much of Madeira’s property history is tied up with the British Blandy family. John Blandy, who first visited Madeira in the early 19th century during the Napoleonic wars, later returned to establish his legendary wine business.

By the end of that century, his descendants had become one of the largest exporters of Madeiran wine and built a vast family estate on the island.

This estate, Palheiro — still run by the Blandy descendants, who also own several other businesses across the island — has been the scene of some exciting new holiday home developments.

In 1993, the 18-hole par-72 Palheiro golf course, designed by US golf architect Cabell Robinson, opened. it’s set in what used to be the estate’s hunting grounds.

The course was redesigned in 2003 and entered the list of Europe’s top 100 courses a few months ago in Golf World magazine.

Meanwhile, in 1997 a country house on the estate was transformed into the fivestar Casa Velha do Palheiro hotel.

The estate is home to new residential developments in what has become known as Palheiro Village.

‘Buyers can select plots on which villas or apartments can be built according to one of a variety of design options under either freehold or fractional ownership,’ says a spokesman for the Palheiro Village resort.

Designed by the algarvebased architect Michael Brown, all Palheiro Village homes have panoramic views over the Bay of Funchal and the atlantic Ocean.

A second scheme of new housing can be found on the Ponta de São Lourenço peninsula, home to the 16-hectare Lorde resort, a ten-minute drive from Funchal airport.

The houses capture the charm of a Madeiran seaside village; there are 127 one, two and three-bedroom villas and apartments on a scheme laden with restaurants, bars and shops, plus a marina boasting berths for 264 vessels.

Modern homes aren’t the only properties on offer.

In Funchal, where prices have fallen 20% from their 2007 peak, you could get a 70-year-old hillside villa for some £200,000, rising to £350,000 in the centre of the town, where a few small apartments cost £100,000 each.

In the north of the island — about 35 minutes from Funchal by motorway — there are large villas for about £225,000.

Although there are several new schemes of holiday homes to complement the stylish period property on the island, scope for future development is limited. Some 67% of Madeira is designated as protected land and national forest.

On many other areas, particularly the steep hills, building work cannot be undertaken and there are increasingly restrictive planning rules being introduced. as a result, there is unlikely to be substantial numbers of new-builds.

‘There are two options for financing a second home in Madeira,’ says Simon Smallwood, of international Private Finance, a mortgage firm specialising in helping Britons buy overseas

‘You can raise the money against your primary UK residence. The downside is that you will be raising funds in sterling and then need to transfer the money into euros, which will be expensive because of the current exchange rate,’ he says.

‘Or you can have a Portuguese mortgage, borrowing in euros on a mortgage secured against the property in Madeira. Portuguese lenders have historically been more cautious than lenders in the UK so are in a much stronger position, post credit crunch.’

Britons can buy on the island without restriction, but must pay 5% to 8% of purchase price in transfer tax and notary fees. Holiday home running costs include an annual tax of 0.2% to 0.8% of the home’s value.

Madeira has no inheritance tax and VaT is just 14%, but capital gains tax of 25% is payable on profits when you resell the home.

So if you want a warm welcome in the island known as The Floating Garden of the atlantic, Madeira might be the answer.

International Private Finance (020 7484 4600, internationalprivate finance.com).

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This article from Graham Norwood – 14 May 2010 – http://bit.ly/c9SXq7

Palheiro, the multifaceted resort development on the Blandy family estate in Madeira, is offering a unique property package for golfing enthusiasts.

With pleasant weather year-round, Madeira attracts golfers from across the globe to play at the island’s two golf courses. One of which is Palheiro, a Cabell Robinson designed, 18 hole par 72 golf course situated on the Palheiro Estate. The course, which opened in 1993, was imaginatively redesigned in 2003 and was included in Golf World’s 2009 list of Europe’s top 100 golf courses.

Located in an elevated position overlooking the Bay of Funchal, the 130 hectare Palheiro Estate was originally an early 19th century hunting lodge. The estate now boasts a world famous 18 hole golf course, the five-star Casa Velha do Palheiro hotel with a spa, award winning Palheiro gardens as well as Palheiro Village – a private development of 79 luxury villas and apartments.

Property prices range from €325,000 for a one-bedroom apartment to €1.15 million for a three-bedroom villa complete with a private swimming pool.

Included within the selling price, golfing enthusiasts buying at Palheiro will enjoy:
•    Entrance fees and full membership to the Palheiro golf club for three years (equivalent value €13,248)
•    All purchase completion costs paid for (excluding legal fees)
•    All development charges paid for the first three years

In addition, Palheiro offers a superb property management service and an established and successful rental programme which is available to prospective purchasers.

Palheiro golf course runs a number of golfing days throughout the year which are available to golf club members and their guests including: the Moynihan’s Open in January, Royal Savoy Classic and Palheiro open in June, October fest golf week and Anniversary Salver in October.

For more information on property at Palheiro, please contact: Palheiro Real Estate, Tel: + 351 291 794 015 or visit:  www.palheiroestate.com