The gap between coastal villas and seasonal workers' shacks widens in Boa Vista

Two markets, one island

Villas priced above 60,000,000 CVE sit alongside rents of 12,000 CVE a month near the port.

The port, a symbol of the Boa Vista that doesn't appear in the brochures

Self-built homes surround Sal Rei's fishing port.

The workers who sustain tourism from the outside

Resort staff cannot afford to live near their workplace.

A model that is starting to be questioned

Warnings point to a risk of residential segregation without affordable housing.

The resorts on the Chaves and Estoril coast, driving a luxury market

The major hotel chains established on the Chaves and Estoril coast have driven up demand for high-end villas and apartments in Boa Vista, with prices easily exceeding 60,000,000 CVE in the most exclusive developments. This segment is aimed almost exclusively at foreign buyers, a world away from the market the island's working population operates in.

Self-built housing and overcrowding near the fishing port

Just a few kilometres from those villas, the area around Sal Rei's port is home to self-built housing, much of it without regular access to water or sanitation, where workers who have come from other islands to work in construction or tourism services live. Several residents describe overcrowded conditions in rentals costing 12,000 CVE a month, a price that remains unaffordable for part of this population.

A pattern reminiscent of Sal, the other major tourist island

The gap between the luxury market and housing for tourism workers mirrors, with some nuances, the one already seen on Sal, the other major tourist island in Cape Verde. In both cases, the rapid growth of hotel supply has not been matched by an equivalent development of affordable housing for the staff who sustain that same industry.

Calls for a housing policy for tourism workers

Social organisations in Boa Vista are calling on the Government and tourism operators themselves to allocate part of their profits to housing programmes for their staff, rather than leaving the market to resolve on its own a gap they see as increasingly difficult to sustain without generating social tension on the island.