Aristides Pereira Airport sends land prices soaring on the outskirts of Sal Rei

A terminal that changed the island

The price of land near the terminal rose from 5,000 to 11,000 CVE/m².

Projects edging closer to the runway

A hotel project in the airport-Sal Rei corridor represents an investment of 900,000,000 CVE.

A pull effect on residential housing

Developments aimed at airport workers and travel agencies are being drawn to the area.

Urban planning under pressure

Calls are growing to revise Sal Rei's urban plan amid growth that is not always well ordered.

From rural airstrip to international gateway

Aristides Pereira Airport, expanded and modernised over the past decade, went from handling occasional domestic flights to receiving regular direct connections from several European countries. This transformation placed Boa Vista, alongside Sal, among the leading tourist destinations in the Cape Verdean archipelago. The rise in air traffic brought with it a steady flow of visitors and tourism workers who needed accommodation near the terminal. According to local estate agents, this change of scale is the direct cause of the surrounding land's rise in value.

Tourism as the driving force behind the property boom

The large all-inclusive hotel complexes on Boa Vista's coast depend directly on Sal Rei's air connectivity for their commercial viability. This link has led international developers to also take an interest in land somewhat further from the beach but close to the corridor connecting the airport with the municipal capital. The combination of sun-and-beach tourism with a modern air terminal has made the area one of the most active for development in the country. Several projects announced in recent years already exceed the scale of the island's first tourist developments.

Sal Rei, caught between growth and a lack of planning

The rapid growth around the airport has put a strain on basic infrastructure in Sal Rei, such as the water and sanitation systems, which were originally designed for a much smaller population. Municipal officials admit that a large share of the new construction has gone up without an updated urban plan to support it. This lack of prior planning worries residents, who see the urban layout expanding without clear criteria. Revising the municipal plan is being put forward as a necessary condition for avoiding bigger problems in the medium term.

The comparison with the neighbouring island of Sal

Estate agents frequently draw on the experience of Sal, whose tourism and airport development came earlier, as a reference for what the area around Sal Rei could become over the next decade. That comparison is used both as a sales pitch, presenting Boa Vista as an investment opportunity ahead of a bigger increase in value, and as a warning about the risks of uncontrolled growth. Some Sal Rei residents explicitly cite Santa Maria's overcrowding problems as something they would rather avoid. The neighbouring island's precedent carries increasing weight in the local debate over urban planning.