It's February, so it must be time for Cape Verde!!!

At the end of last month we sent members of our team out to the Cape Verde Islands to snag for many clients.

For those that do not know where the Cape Verde Islands are, they are a collection of ten islands off the West coast of Africa. On a level with Dakar the Cape Verde Islands are only 14º north of the Equator. This gives them a great all round climate and mild weather conditions.

So where are we snagging, you ask? Our first clients are for a development called Vila Verde Resort Santa Maria. This a 1200 unit development divided into 13 communities. The developer is called Tecnicil and is a Cape Verdean company. This development is on the sandy island of Sal, a pretty flat island sporting sandy white beaches and plenty of watersports.

After the first round of snag reports we can report that generally quality is very

good. Perhaps better than our team had expected when we first set out to snag there. Being an island, supplies is an issue so many of the snags we discovered on our first inspections were more based on missing items - such as shutter clasps, silicon treating aorund door seals - than on imperfections in the finish or areas that needed TLC.

Perhaps cheap labour means that the quality of finish is as high as it is, given you could probably get someone to go over and over on painting and plasterwork until it is perfect.

Whatever the reasons, the first groups, or communities as Tecnicil has designated them, are looking good.

I should comment that the infrastructure is not fully in. Some people have asked us to snag this too, but we have been unable to do much with this yet. We will keep you posted and let you know when we can get some reports done.