The Algarve mountain region of Monchique looks set for serious investment to be made in it after it was announced that Monchique council has approved “the biggest and most important” municipal budget in recent years, coupled with news that a recently-formed consortium is to buy the Caldas springs and has over 10 million euros to plough into its development.
Monchique announced last week that a €22.3 million municipal budget had been approved by majority, with the abstention of PS councillors, and that “large-scale projects” are planned for 2019.
Describing the budget as “one of the most important budgets in recent years”, it represents a 51.5 percent increase on the budget set for this year.
In a statement, the council said the 2019 municipal budget “is a budget that reflects the intense work and rigor in local authority management in recent years, as well as the firming up of the physical and financial conditions for the projects to be carried out, better structuring for the county, and that, for the most part, they have the conditions to start during the course of this year”.
The budget is, the council said, “underpinned by solid projects that meet the needs of the municipality and which are fundamental for its socio-economic development, and show maturity enough to make 2019 a year of many achievements”.
Monchique continues to tout its “appealing tax policy, with the lowest IMI rate in the country and a positive differentiation for large families” in the 2019 budget as well as a 2.5 percent refund of municipal contributions in IRS reimbursements.
Mayor Rui André has said he continues to “put people first, with a varied range of differentiating supportive and direct measures”, which “aim to attract an increasingly young population, while at the same time unconditionally supporting the older population with the continuity of the implementation of its Gerontology Plan, with proposals for the active and healthy aging of the population”.
Meanwhile, news has emerged that a consortium is to buy the Monchique Caldas springs, a picturesque tourist hotspot, and it has over 10 million euros to invest in improving the complex and its vicinity.
Made up of Port wine owners Taylor’s, luxury hotel company Unlock Boutique Hotels, and one of the companies that owns Águas de Monchique water, the consortium is reportedly to purchase the Caldas from current owners the Oriente Foundation.
According to Algarve news outlet Sul Informação, the Monchique Municipal Assembly has already approved an IMT - Municipal Tax on Onerous Transmissions of Real Estate exemption request, a key condition for the business to move forward.
In practice, Sul Informação explains, this means Monchique council will be abdicating of around €500,000 in taxes for the project to progress.
Rui André told the newspaper the decision “was not taken lightly” but was taken “for the good of the county in the medium and long term”.
“It is in our best interest that this business comes to fruition. It is not unreasonable to say that, in recent years, there has not been much stimulation or investment by the Oriente Foundation”.
He argued: “I think a refresh and a new wave of investment, of stimulation and projection of the enormous potential associated with the Caldas, are necessary”.
