‘Vista do Paço’ includes 10 houses, with the value of all developments exceeding one million euros. Completion of the project will take place in April.
Paço de Arcos, in the municipality of Oeiras, has a new luxury development thanks to the Portuguese-Australian promoter JPM Alliance that makes its debut in Portugal with the ‘Vista do Paço’ project in which it invested 10 million euros.
In total, there are 10 houses, the detached ones are of T5 typology, with 360 sqm, all of them having a panoramic terrace overlooking the sea, swimming pool, garden and private parking. The semi-detached houses are T4, and also have a swimming pool, garden, two parking spaces and approximately 308 sqm, in addition to a view of the sea. The value of the 10 houses is over one million euros.
JPM Alliance was born in 2013 by Australian businessman Jonathan Nichols and Portuguese Patrícia Almeida, with the main goal of building high quality developments (residential and non-residential) in Portugal, Myanmar, Australia and Singapore.
In an interview to Jornal Económico, Patrícia Almeida explains that the choice for Paço de Arcos happened through the architect of this project, Afonso Almeida Fernandes. “A mutual friend introduced us to a project that we thought would meet what we wanted. We were looking to start building in Portugal, buy land and do our own project and the perfect conditions were met to do so”.
One of the goals of ‘Vista do Paço’ was to build the houses with materials produced in Portugal, thus giving greater sustainability and energy efficiency to the development. “In terms of searching for materials, we were concerned with looking for local materials. The stones, sanitary ware, faucets, glass are all made in Portugal”, says Afonso Almeida Fernandes, adding that all houses have A+ energy certification.
“We found three solutions for this: air conditioning through heat pumps; the solar panels to heat the sanitary waters and the third is related to the cladding of the facades and the shutter system that we designed to protect the windows from the sun”, explains the architect.
Factors that can also mitigate construction costs that continue to increase in Portugal. “I think that the greater the choice for Portuguese materials, the more controlled this inflation is. The real estate market is uncertain. When we start to build, we don't know what the market will be like after two or three years”, underlines the architect, stressing, however, that there is “a lot of space for creativity in the choice of materials, because many have not yet had significant increases in prices”. If we look to the market and the solutions that exist, together with the versatility of Portuguese materials, there's always a solution. I'm not that worried.”
The 10 houses are all already sold, with the majority of buyers being Portuguese, but there is also space for Brazilians, Angolans and North Americans. Patrícia Almeida assumes that the biggest difficulties appeared at the beginning, “because we are a new company in the market and this is our first project. But we weren't in hurry to sell.”
However, as construction progressed, the CEO emphasizes that “the project began to speak for itself. Entering the houses, there are certain details that sell the house for itself”.
Details that with the pandemic have gained greater importance for those thinking about buying. “Finishes are always an important side. These villas are not for an end customer, but for promotion and sale, the choices and options must be consensual. The project itself was designed to be as versatile as possible", says Afonso Almeida Fernandes, noting, in addition to the pool and garden, the fact that all houses have a bedroom on the ground floor that can be connected to a living area, being used as a bedroom or an office.
Despite this being the first project in Portugal and the focus being on the conclusion of ‘Vista do Paço’, the CEO of JPM Alliance is already looking to new horizons. “What we have been analyzing is predominantly in the Cascais area. We want to create spaces that allow people to have a great quality of life. But we don't rule out interesting areas across the rest of the country. We've already seen things in Oporto, Coimbra, and Évora”.
The conclusion of the project Patrícia Almeida believes could happen soon. “We are just waiting for the city council to issue the license. Things have been going well and we believe it could be this month”, she concludes.