Anyone have experience with Holborn Assets for hotel investment for PGV?

Holborn Assets apparently have 280K-400K euros hotel investments in Algarve (e.g. Pelican in Alvor between Portimao and Lagos) that qualifies for PGV. They apparently pay 5-6% returns for 5-6 years as an upfront payment and guarantee payback after getting your PGV. Upfront payments are better than Mercan 280K options with no payments, thereby losing about 5% per year until you get your 280K back, assuming 5% average inflation rate. To me, this is a bad investment as you end up with under 200K value in todays value when you get your “guaranteed” buyback in future. Any experience with Holborn or recommendations for others to consider besides La Vida and Mercan that may offer better/safer investment value?

Any recommendations for the best investment options / companies /for a 280K investment for either a real estate investment or residential investment?

Here are some links that Holborn sent me today in advance of a webinar with them…

Holborn Passport - Portugal’s Golden Visa - YouTube

Golden Visa Hotel in the Algarve… for only €285,000?! - YouTube

Portuguese Golden Visa Property in the Algarve - Pelican Hotel - YouTube

I am nervous about the PGV with lots of concerns/issues raised in these forums on the current situation, unknowns in future with the government and the program, etc. and now considering Portugal D7 as the safest option in future to get EU citizenship quickest or considering Spain Golden Visa and buying a residential property exactly where I may want to retire and getting permanent residency with longer term to citizenship.

Any feedback is much appreciated…

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PTGV is far from a sure thing, but seems the best way to buy in to EU residency and citizenship, eventually. I’m not aware of any comparable methods for time on the ground requirements and cost.

I can’t comment on specific investments but generally, open ended funds are much safer than these projects where maybe you get to withdraw your money, maybe go fuck yourself. You may appreciate the comfort of having an exchange traded fund rather than opaque investments like a hotel.

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Assuming you are looking at the excellium stuff through holborn, I did dig into it a while back and it seemed like a fairly decent deal - I almost went that route and somewhat wish I did, at least for the deal in question at the time - but it was mid-pandemic and my property evaluator firm was unable to get there to eyeball the property and assess it. You have to look at each deal in specific. What is the plan, what is being done, how is the money being spent and how is the deal structured. In the one I looked at, you were literally buying an apartment in a building, that was then being renovated. The spend on the reno wasn’t bad, and while the apartment wasn’t fantastic, it wasn’t horrible, and you had the specific deed to the apartment so if it all fell through you would own it and could resell it easily enough, and it was in the new center of Albufeira. But that was the specifics of that particular deal, and it is hard to speak of any given deal without a lot of digging.

But as for going for a PTGV now, I certainly would not want to screw up my life in that fashion.

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Thanks for the feedback. What property evaluator did you use and what are typical costs for an evaluation? Holborn have a couple of investment opportunities where you own unit vs share in a hotel. They pay around 5% return for 5 years, all paid upfront, to offset capital costs with “guaranteed” buyback after 6 years. This seems like a better deal than no returns or yearly returns. One in Obidos (Royal Obidos, newbuild) and one in Alvor, Algarve (Pelican Alvor, renovation).

Look up Prime Yield, they’re a professional outfit for appraisals. Was around $1000 at the time.

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Holborn Assets are not a company you want to deal with. Trust me.

Can you give details as to why not? Usually specifics are more helpful than a general statement.

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Don’t want to go into detail as it’s illegal to tarnish a companys reputation in the Middle East. Do some digging on google. Many people have lost their pensions.

Kevin,

Do you have any updates from your experience working with Holborn?

I’m speaking with them as well and wanted to hear about others experiences.

Hi Alex…I did not make a purchase. They seem to know what they are doing.

Any reason why you did not?

How was your experience ? I am speaking with them now.

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