Hello everyone,
Let me introduce myself, my name is Falah Al-Jaizani and I am a partner of Fastro Developments LLP based in Manchester. Some of you have already found our company through the "worrying development" thread. I am posting to answer some of your questions and concerns regarding our development in Plakias. I will try to answer as many questions as I can, if I miss anything out please feel free to drop me a line, I will leave my details below.
1. The development consists of 432 privately owned apartments and villas within a resort environment. These will be built to a very high standard deserving the 5* tag.
2. The architects involved are world renowned for building 5* hotel resorts throughout the Meditteranean region and we are very lucky that they have taken the contract to design this resort.
3. The images you have seen so far are preliminary and will be updated in the next few week to include much more detail. The images you see now are the first draft and have not been fully rendered to include, stone type, landscaping and lifestyle e.g. people. When these are finished you will be able to "see" exactly what this resort will look like, so I ask you to reserve judgement until then.
4. The resort will include many amenities that will be available for all, such as a medical centre, restaurants, shops and health spa.
5. One of the principal partners involved in this project also are one of the largest hotel owners in Greece, with 34 5* hotels, we do NOT associate our good names with sub standard property, we DO associate ourselves with up market property and 5* service. If the apartments that have been built recently by the Norwegian company that you all find so hideous (so do I) is a Ford Escort, we are a Bentley by comparison, hence the price points.
6. Phase 1 of the project will take 2 years because the main utilities construction for the whole site will be completed during that time e.g. sewage, water, electricity etc.
7. The boundaries of the site are the telegraph pole to the right of the abandoned white property behind the road, to the road that cuts inland all the way up to the hill where the white container is from the perspective looking in land from the sea.
8. We have taken 90% of the available permitable building land in Plakias, this means that after we have finished there will be no more building in Plakias on any relevant scale.
9. Plakias is changing, and there is nothing that we can do about it. The marina is a good example of where EU money is being spent within Greece, you must ask why such a large amount of money is being spent in such an out of the way locale? The marina will be used for the fishing boats primarily allowing the town port to be used for pleasure craft. This will attract recreational yacht and power boat users to the area.
10. 23 units are now sold on phase 1 along with 5 further villas on phase three that have been reserved by the principals for their own use. It says reserved on the price lists as this follows our standard business model. A 2% non refundable deposit reserves the property, 18% on exchange of contrcats, 80% finace for the rest, when exchange of contracts takes place reserved becomes sold. The drop out rate from reserved to sold in non existant. The 80% finance is inclusive of VAT.
11. What you are seeing now regarding web sites and marketing material is only the preliminary marketing as the Plakias resort will not be officially launched until March 2008, what you are seeing now is the ealy bird campaign, that allows our clients to have first choice before general release, this is very popular as with most projects of this size the price will rise per phase release. Brochures, videos, CGI walkthroughs and an upgrade to
www.plakiasresort.com will be completed over the next two months. We expect the site to be sold out by the end of 2008.
12. The demographic of the people that will buy on Plakias are wide ranging, however, the majority will be holiday home owners and investors that will rent the property to holiday makers and use it for themselves. It must be remembered that as a resort, rather than just a development, most people will stay on site as all the ameneties are within the resort itself. Plakias resort will be marketed to the Britsh market first, however, we have had enquires from Norway, Denmark and Sweden by property companies that want to market our product, as yet we have made no agreements outside of the UK. Expect families and couples for the most part from 30's to retirees who want a quiet holiday in beautiful surroundings.
13. The development will effectively double the population of Plakias during the season, which will easily be absorbed without having a negative impact on the resort due to the large amount of space currently available.
14. This devlopment will bring in a lot more money to the area that will have a very positive impact on the local economy resulting in more revenue being spent on Plakias itself by the municipality and a general upgrade of the shops and restaurants over the coming years due to their own increased revenues.
15. There is no negative feelings within the local community, far from it, the people that we have spoken to are very exited about the propesects for their village, if there is any ambivalence towards our project we have not encountered it. Ofcourse when the project is fully released to the public this will dispel any fears people may have through a lack of information.
16. Ofcourse any development of this size is going to have an impact on the community throughout construction, however, we are working to minimise any disruption by working on the exterior contruction, swimming pools, foundations and ameneties etc during the winter months and the interiors during the summer months, this is one reason that the development will take 5 years, however, should we sell out the project by the end of next year as we expect, then we will revise the delopment time down by anything up to two years, 5 years is a conservative guideline only.
There are developments that harm areas of natural beauty and there are those that compliment the surrounding area, I ask you to reserve judgement for the moment as we are firmly of the belief that we will make Plakias a better place for all. This includes those on this forum, the local residents and those that have not yet discovered Plakias. We will build a harmonious development that compliments the surrounding environment, turning a wasteland into an up market resort. We accept that there will people who will only ever accept the status quo, however, it is folly to believe that we live in a static, timeless, never changing world, however romantic those thoughts might be. We will be building 14 developments throughout Crete in the future, mostly front line beach, however, this is the jewel in the crown.
For those of you who cannot wait to see what this resort will look like, you can watch a video of a site we are building in Cyprus that will give you a general idea although Plakias will be more upmarket/better as the Cyprus development is not a resort. We will be providing a fully animated walkthrough of Plakias resort by the end of the year similar to this one, so you can see exactly what it will look like then. Go to
www.fastro.co.uk log in and navigate to Cyprus, Polyxenia and download the movie.
I hope I have answered most of your questions, however, should you have any further questions please feel free to contact me or leave a message and I will do my best to answer. I hope that my responding to your concerns on this forum gives you an idea of who we are as a company and where are priorities lie, we do care about Plakias, so much so that I have reserved one of the villas for myself and my family to enjoy in the future.
Falah Al-Jaizani
Fastro Development LLP
0870 609 8044
falah@fastro.co.uk
P.S. The site was chosen a long time ago and I can assure you all that both ourselves and our Greek partners do not frequent your site, so if you find our project unpalatable, you are not to blame for its discovery.
