The Adriatic's new star

Albania's unheralded coast is opening up to tourists and British home-buyers

friday, 18 november 2011

British Airways has regular flights to the capital, Tirana, which take around three hours, and the international airport has been upgraded.

‘Multi-nationals are setting up businesses in and around the capital, resulting in a need for good-quality housing for locals and expatriates — and making Tirana’s property market of particular interest to overseas investors,’ says Bernard Ellis, 90MD of British-based property company Albanian Acquisitions. The city also has several universities and academies, ‘which give it a young population and a buzzing vibrant feel,’ says Ellis.

There is a vast new project on Tirana Lake, where Rotterdam-based architects MVRDV are planning to create new areas including an extensive lakeshore drive. A chain of parks around the lake will be the setting for homes, terraces, outside public pools, play areas — and bridges to walk over a planned ‘blue cloud’ of Jacaranda trees. The piece de resistance is Tirana Rocks, a series of buildings clad with various types of stone so they appear like a gigantic rock formation in the lake park.

Just north of Durres, architects Woods Bagot, who have been involved in projects in Dubai, Cyprus, London and Liverpool, are the first British firm to have designed a gated beachfront development — the Lalzit Bay Resort. With on-site amenities including spa, swimming pool, sports facilities, restaurants, bars and shops, a one-bedroom apartment starts at £44,000, and three and four-bedroom villas are from £204,500.

Further south is Saranda, a major tourist hotspot set around a bay between the mountains and the Ionian Sea, with a Mediterranean climate and bustling waterfront, with bars and restaurants. The remains of the ancient city of Butrint, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is nearby, while on the Albania Riviera, ‘the coastal road between Saranda and the Llogara Pass is a wonder in itself.