Hungary-based real estate giant TriGranit is planning to build a resort town in the northwest part of Albania, which will function as a complex tourist leisure facility upon the completion of the green-field investment. In this multimillion euro project the group is to create a facility of a size of a small town, with hotels, restaurants, villas, roads, hospitals, all kinds of service units and public utilities on the shore of the Adriatic sea, local news portal index.hu has reported on Thursday.
There is virtually no hindrance to the planned project, since Albania does not restrict non-residents’ real estate purchases, does not levy tax on capital gains, real estate acquisitions are exempt from value-added tax and there are also a number of tax allowances available.
Albania, with a population of over 3.5 million, may turn even more appealing for investors, as over the past years its economic growth turned stable. On the other hand, its political instability and the lack of infrastructure, e.g. fairly frequent power outages, are not for the fainthearted.
Nevertheless, Kosovo’s recently announced independence and Albania’s oncoming accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) could enhance political stabilisation and have economic pillars fortified in its wake.
Albania’s tourism industry, thanks to the country’s favourable geographical features – sandy white Mediterranean beaches, rocky mountains, plains and lakes, not to mention an average of around 300 sunny days a year – has been growing by about 10% every year. According to index.hu’s information, the tourism sector generated EUR 1.5 billion revenues in 2007, 13.8% of the country’s gross domestic product.
The tourism industry may be further boosted by the fact that due to the weak USD, American tourists are seeking destinations outside the euro zone and Albania is still considered extremely cheap.
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