Young property developer Ciarán Maguire isn't having any of this doom and gloom. We were sceptical, we have to be honest, when we read a press release about the launch of his Palm View resort on Boa Vista Island, Cape Verde.
It talks about 100 per cent mortgages as if there was no credit crunch, and says 30-year-old Maguire can "best be described as an international property magnate, an award winning entrepreneur with an insatiable appetite for forward thinking". It adds that the launch "has to be applauded for its sheer fortitude in this currently daunting economic climate". Indeed.
He's offering an unusual sale and leaseback deal to potential buyers of one of the 370 apartments and villas to be built in the first phase of the huge €2bn 3,000-unit resort he plans there. The homes range from €98,000 for a studio up to €827,000 for a five-bed villa.
A 10 per cent deposit will secure a unit and further staged payments are avoided if you sign a bond saying that you'll lease the property back to Palm View when it's built. In spring 2010, when it's completed, you get your 100 per cent mortgage through Portuguese bank Banif, but make no repayments yourself for 10 years. Palm View takes your 7 per cent guaranteed rents and pays the mortgage instead, for a 10-year period, renewable for another 10. Buyers get to use their property for four weeks a year.
And oh yes, next year Maguire will be setting up his own airline to fly to Boa Vista from Dublin, London and Manchester.
Did we say confident?
