How we ended up building a house in Cape Verde
2022-06-01
In 2003, after watching A Place in the Sun, we decided to set off for Sal, an island in Cape Verde, with the intention of buying a property we could use for family holidays.
We had never been to Cape Verde before, and we arrived at 2am. It was early winter in both the UK and Cape Verde — but we woke on our first morning to a fabulous, warm, sunny day and decided there and then that we wanted to come back regularly.
After a trip to another island in the archipelago, Boa Vista, we returned to Sal, and a week later had agreed to buy a front-line apartment in Santa Maria. We particularly liked it for its design, and for the fact that it was almost finished.
We considered ourselves fairly astute, and decided to do the legal work ourselves. In the end we didn't complete on the purchase until 2009 — but that's a separate story, and one worth telling in full another time.
Twenty years of coming back
While we were still working, we only came out for a week here or a fortnight there each year — but we never regretted the decision. In 2016 we came out for the whole winter and resolved to spend more time in Cape Verde as we approached the later years of our working lives.
The internet had improved immeasurably since we first arrived. By 2016 it had become fairly easy to get high-speed broadband in our apartment, which made working remotely from Sal genuinely practical.
Then came the pandemic. We ended up spending much of lockdown in Cape Verde, and grew to love island life even more.
From apartment to a plot of our own
In 2022 we decided the time had come to sell the apartment and build a house somewhere more tranquil. Santa Maria is a wonderful place for a holiday, but its very popularity had made it busy. We wanted somewhere more secluded — and managed to buy a plot of land, front-line to the sea, overlooking the port of Palmeira in the north of the island.
We had always wanted to build a home from scratch. This was the perfect opportunity.
Our friends' reactions have ranged from "fantastic, go for it!" to "are you completely mad?" We shall soon know which.
This blog charts our progress from the very start of our self-build-abroad adventure. We also hope to offer encouragement and practical help to anyone considering something similar — including the things we got wrong, and what they cost.