Friday, 07 December 2007

AlmaVerde scoops five 2007 Homes Overseas Magazine Awards

AlmaVerde Village & Spa in the Western Algarve was a five-time winner at this year’s Homes Overseas Magazine Awards, picking up an award in the category of Best House, Portugal, as well as awards in the international categories of Best Sustainable Development, Best Innovation and Best Landscape Design. The awards were presented at a press reception and lunch held at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington on Monday 3rd December, 2007, culminating in the presentation of the special award for “Developer of the Year”.

These are the only global property awards where every short-listed entry is visited by independent judges. This year, winners came from eighteen different countries in four continents. For the first time, the judges were unable to agree on their choice for the crown of “Developer of the Year”. As they put it, ”The ultimate accolade was pushed all the way by the green pride of Portugal: AlmaVerde Village & Spa”.

The theme of the 2007 awards was “Green is the new Gold”, and the organisers highlighted the awards won in the categories of Best Sustainable Development and Best Innovation as demonstrating that developers are not only becoming more aware of the importance of sustainable development for the health of the environment, but now recognise their commercial value, as the world wakes up to the green agenda.

Flemmich Webb, one of the award judges and a leading environmental journalist, commented, “Some developers are thinking deeply about the social, environmental and financial implications of creating new destinations”.

Guided by its ethos to promote the energy-efficient use of natural resources, AlmaVerde has built its villas to a unique and innovative specification tailored to local climatic needs, including its signature Coolhouse ground-source zero-carbon cooling system. The result is villas that remain comfortably cool in summer and warm and damp-free in winter, all at low energy cost.