Ancient Sands of time

By Andrea Watson
Posted: 2010/05/12

AT the height of the property boom a fellow journalist travelled to Hurghada on the Red Sea to report on Ancient Sands, a proposed new extension to the El Gouna resort.

Partly modelled on its larger sister and to be built by the same Middle Eastern developer, Orascom Hotels & Development, it would offer villas, pools, hotels and all the trimmings that have become standard resort stuff. What the writer, a golf nut, was chiefly interested in was the 18-hole par 72 championship course.

Travelling via Cairo, which prolonged the trip unnecessarily due to flight delays, the press pack arrived exhausted in the middle of the night. The following day they were driven into the desert to see Ancient Sands, this promised land of luxury villas, championship fairways and greens fronting the sparkling Red Sea. Thirsty for the excitement and with images of the Pharaohs, Indiana Jones and Lawrence of Arabia flitting though their minds, they disembarked from the jeep to be confronted by a sea of . . . absolutely nothing.

"Not even the yellow undulating dunes of David Lean, " my colleague wrote. "Just scrubby, dirty nothing."

His account of the trip was never published. Yet going halfway round the world to see nothing was common in the heyday of the overseas property market.

In some cases, these acres of land with crude sticks and flags marking out future villas, pools, hotels and golf courses are still unbuilt thanks to the worldwide credit crunch and recession.

Despite my colleague's horror at the vacuum which presented itself as Ancient Sands, El Gouna itself was not a phantom on a drawing board.
It was, and is, a fully fledged town with numerous hotels, a beautiful marina, 18-hole golf course, a hospital, university, mosque and 15,000 permanent residents.

Architecturally, it may not be to everyone's taste but it's no more ersatz than many other themed holiday resorts and at least it is not a mirage. The houses are real, not computer-generated images, and the landscaping is not an airbrushed fantasy worthy of Avatar's creators.

On my only visit in 2004 I enjoyed all it had to offer, including rooftop dining in a temperature of 35 degrees, scuba diving in a sea as warm as a bath and forays to Luxor and the desert to visit Bedouin camps and drink mint tea. Sales at El Gouna were so strong from 2003 to 2007 that builders could not keep pace with demand. By the time the recession arrived, the resort was fully operational and early investors were reaping the rewards of capital growth and strong rental demand.

The strength of the euro, which has led to many holidaymakers looking outside the eurozone for value, is playing into the hands of buyers.
Egypt currently tops the ranks for several leading tour operators, including First Choice, Thompson and lastminute.com, as the most popular choice for 2010.

Figures released by travel agents' group Abta show holiday bookings were up 27 per cent in February year on year. As for Ancient Sands, because of the recession it remains a patch of dirty sand scored by bulldozer tracks. Last month, I was invited on a press trip to view its painfully slow progress but it was cancelled thanks to the Icelandic volcano with the unpronounceable name, thus saving me the dilemma of having to report I had seen nothing. Nevertheless, the first infrastructure works have started.

Investors may be wary of off-plan purchases but if you like El Gouna and want to buy into the existing successful resort, it is an option.

In 2008, when my colleague made his foray into the desert, prices for a two-bedroom apartment at Ancient Sands started at around £160,000.

Today, the marketing team is offering a two-bed apartment for £263,536 and villas from £500,426, so there's no sign of the recession in these prices.
Two phases of the complex are nearly sold out despite the fact the timescale for delivering is the end of next year - December 2011 - which could so easily translate into 2012.

Why the success?

Apart from the tourist boom in the Red Sea area, there are the tax breaks residents of Ancient Sands may one day enjoy, including low income tax and no inheritance tax.

Plus, instead of grey skies, they will be able to bask in year-round sunshine, play golf on the new Karl Litten course, dabble in the spa centre, swim or dive on the coral reefs of the Red Sea Riviera and spend balmy evenings eating at restaurants where dinner for four can cost as little as £30.

INFORMATION: www.ancientsandsresort.com

GETTING THERE
There are all-year flights to Hurghada International Airport, taking around five hours from the UK. Carriers include Easyjet. Thomas Cook Airlines quotes from £264, departing in June, 2010. Book at www.flythomascook.com