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The story starts when I was still married to my now ex-husband. I have been holidaying in Egypt for the past five years. It all started at a property show in Birmingam, which then lead us to El Gouna (just north of Hurghada) and to the purchase of a villa. It was bought in exactly the same way as the properties in Azzurra, off plan over two years. Two years! It seemed like an age. To start with we had misgivings. What had we done? Parting with all that money up front – and Egypt? Everybody was buying in Spain, Cyprus etc., but Egypt? However, as soon as the villa started to emerge from the ground (sand?) all fears were soon forgotten. Over the months it grew and developed before our very eyes (well, on our frequent trips to see the progress anyway!). It became everything we had been told it would – and more. We took it over on the exact date we had been promised one year earlier. A real bonus had been the delightful Egyptian men and boys who had worked on the villa. Always with a smile on their faces, no matter how difficult the working conditions (try tanking out a swimming pool with hot bitchumin in 35 degrees!) and more often than not, in fits of laughter at some crazy thing one of us Brits came up with to ‘help’! They found it particularly hilarious when we tried to use our vast vocabulary of Arabic!!
The years flew by and at the end of 2008 we decided to look in other developments at apartments. Having a villa is all very well, but with it goes many responsibilities, for example, the running of a pool can be expensive and it has to be cleaned every day, the garden has to be watered at least once a day (twice in high summer), and organising it all became trying to say the least. Don’t forget, this all had to be done whether we were there or not. We decided we wanted to be able to lock the door and walk away. Besides, the villa had rocketed in value so the timing seemed right and a brand new apartment was the obvious answer, because the thought of abandoning Egypt altogether was out of the question. We loved the place and we loved the people. It’s like Spain used to be 40 years ago, everybody smiles, everybody speaks to you and nothing is ever too much trouble.
Whereas El Gouna is a 20 minute taxi ride north of Hurghada, Sahl is about a 15 min ride south – perfect! We had actually been keeping our eye on Sahl for some time, but hadn’t really seen anything with enough style to compare with the villa (nubian with domes and vaults). Then we heard about Azzurra and that it was the same architect Alfredo Freda, who had designed many of the properties in El Gouna. So, that was it, and off we went! We were shown the styles (beautiful), the site layout (look at all the waterfalls and pools!) and the situation up on the coral cliffs (sensational), but the clincher, the clincher was the views!! SOLD! Now all we had to do was choose which apartment. We very reluctantly came home and we started to consider our options. At this point, I should tell you that our villa has a wonderful roof terrace (I tell anyone prepared to listen that its my favourite place in the world!) so an apartment with a roof terrace was a ‘must’. This is where the wonderful team selling the apartments stepped in and sourced a few choice apartments for our consideration. One of them in particular appeared to be almost perfect.
Then my husband left! I must confess that one of my first thoughts was ‘But what about the apartment????’ There was no way I was going to miss out on the apartment – so I bought it! Have I got the money to pay for it? – have I heck! Well not until the villa sells anyway. In the meantime, I’m coming up with my quarterly payments (another great advantage of buying on Azzurra, you don’t have to have all the money right from the start, so it doesn’t matter if you’re not rich!)
I’ve been back three times to view progress (and take millions of photographs!). My completion date is March next year and I can’t wait! The beauty of the timescale means that you have plenty of time to plan how you want your apartment to look (assuming you’re not taking advantage of the furniture package).
So, if you like what you’ve read and would like to know more about either my experience of buying in Egypt or about buying on Azzurra, please get in touch and I’ll be glad to help in any way I can. If you are thinking of buying on Azzurra, take my advice, buy as soon as you can, because it’s so exciting!!! I promise, you will love it!