What is the legal structure of the estate?

Question

Accepted Answer

Apaulinha is developed within a rural tourism framework — a "Hotel Rural" classification licensed by the Municipality of Grândola — and is organised around three companies with distinct roles, with each villa individually owned under horizontal property.

The Hotel Rural classification is the planning and licensing framework that permits a low-density residential estate with common buildings and hospitality services on rural Alentejo land. Within it, the estate's legal structure allows division into horizontal property (propriedade horizontal), so that each of the nine villas carries its own full ownership title.

Three companies stand behind the project:

- **Elegant Horizon Lda** (to be renamed Apaulinha Lda) is the developer and promoter: it owns the land, develops and finances the project, coordinates and sells the villas, and implements the horizontal property division. It is based in Lisbon, directed by Ambre Marazzi and Julien Labrousse, and majority-owned by DELEUZE SASU, the French investment holding of Julien Labrousse.

- **Fábrica Policronica Lda** is the construction company carrying out the works.

- **Apaulinha Management Lda** is the operating company (to be incorporated): it will handle the tourist operation of the resort, rental management, hotel services, and the common infrastructure and its maintenance.

The keystone of the structure comes after completion: the common tourist infrastructure — reception, restaurant, spa and the collective equipment — is contributed in kind to the capital of Apaulinha Management Lda. Buyers acquire shares in that company as 25% of their purchase, so the owners collectively stand behind the entity that owns and operates everything shared.

Why this matters: the structure separates roles cleanly — developer, builder, operator — while ending with the owners themselves holding the operating company. There is no external landlord of the common areas and no third party extracting rent from the amenities the owners use. Governance, cost and quality of the shared estate sit with the nine households who own it.

As with any structured acquisition, buyers should have the arrangements reviewed by independent legal counsel.