Cape Verde hotel boom pushes up property prices in Sal and Boa Vista

Hotels in Cape Verde welcomed 277,000 guests between April and June 2026, 9% more than a year earlier, according to figures released on 12 September by INE Cabo Verde, the national statistics office. Two islands take almost everything: Sal accounts for 62% of guests and Boa Vista for 18%.

A destination still on the rise

Tourism makes up roughly a quarter of the Cape Verdean economy, and in 2025 the country came close to 1.25 million guests. The United Kingdom supplies more than a quarter of all visitors, followed by Portugal, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. These are the same markets that fill the Canary Islands, which passed 18 million tourists in 2025. Cape Verde handles a fraction of that volume, but it is growing at a pace the Spanish archipelago left behind years ago.

Who is buying in Santa Maria and Sal Rei

In Santa Maria, the tourist hub of Sal, the typical buyer is a private individual from Britain, Portugal or Germany looking for a flat with a pool to let to holidaymakers. The holiday let, meaning a flat rented by the night to visitors, is the star product. In Sal Rei, the capital of Boa Vista, the market is smaller and leans even more heavily on the large resorts. Property portals list new one-bedroom flats from around 130,000 euros, and developers promise rental returns that are now hard to find in the Canaries. Those are sales pitches, not statistics.

Land and housing for workers

Sal and Boa Vista draw thousands of workers from Santiago, Santo Antão and São Vicente to work in kitchens, cleaning, transport and construction. In Sal Rei there are hardly any homes to rent, and the mayor has admitted that a monthly rent can reach 40,000 escudos, about 360 euros, beyond the reach of many hotel employees. The town council is building 21 flats and has revived the national Casa para Todos programme, but the scale is tiny against demand.

What to expect

If the third quarter keeps up the pace, prices in Santa Maria will keep climbing and well-located land on Boa Vista will gain value. Anyone buying to let to tourists should watch the new property tax regime in force since January 2026, the reliance on two or three source markets, and the real water and sewage capacity of each island. For local families, the key is for town councils to set aside land for affordable housing before tourism takes it all. The Canary Islands took decades to learn that lesson.