Andermatt development going “according to plan”

Sales at Switzerland’s largest property development project Andermatt Swiss Alps are progressing “as expected”, developer Orascom has announced in a news release.

Purchase and reservation contracts worth SFr102 million ($108 million) were signed between April and December 2010, with a further SFr9 million in business since the start of this year.

The ambitious project, which is the brainchild of Egyptian billionaire Samih Sawiris, will see the transformation of the village of Andermatt in central Switzerland into a luxury resort with six hotels, 490 apartments, 25 villas and a range of new amenities.

To date, Orascom has sold seven hotel apartments and reserved eight, sold seven other apartments and reserved ten and sold four villas, a spokesman told swissinfo.ch. The residences are scheduled to be ready for occupation in 2014.

Sawiris himself told journalists on Wednesday that 41 per cent of the buyers were from Switzerland, 42 per cent from the rest of Europe, 14 per cent from Egypt and three per cent from Canada.

Building work on three separate sites  – the flagship hotel, the underground building platform and the golf course  – was interrupted in mid December due to winter conditions and will resume in the spring. An investment of SFr100 million is planned for 2011.

So far the company has spent SFr136 million on the project.