WORDS: DEBBIE HATHWAY:: PHOTOS: SUPPLIED
Anahita Beau Champ is the luxury residential component of a developing Smart City designed to encourage residents to live, work, play, and grow with sustainability top of mind.
If ever there was a time to invest in a mixed-use property development that takes the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to heart, it’s now at Anahita Beau Champ on the east coast of Mauritius.
Developed by Alteo as part of the Anahita Mauritius destination, which incorporates Anahita Golf Resort, the recently launched Anahita Beau Champ is taking shape around the former Deep River Beau Champ sugar factory, and the village of the same name that housed the working community. The 118ha estate is designed for rural wellness living under the Mauritian government’s Smart City Scheme enabling residents to live, work, play, and grow in magnificent natural surroundings unique to this part of the island.
Anahita Beau Champ
It’s a different philosophy to that applied to the long-established and almost completely sold-out Anahita Golf Resort, developed under the Integrated Resort Scheme as a luxury golf estate by the sea with two five-star hotels, golf courses, restaurants, a rental programme, and exclusive beach access at nearby Ile aux Cerfs. Anahita Beau Champs adheres to the mixed-use component, a vital smart city principle, developing with sustainability and community in mind while staying true to the site’s DNA or spirit. “Land use in a smart city must be 50% residential, 50% non-residential. You can still sell properties to international buyers but need to bring different facilities, services, and amenities to a destination to create more jobs and contribute to a community,” says David Martial, CEO of Alteo Property / Anahita Estates Ltd.
Ile aux Cerfs
EVOLVING PROPERTY INVESTMENT FRAMEWORK
Anahita Beau Champ is in the process of obtaining a WELL Community certification, which focuses entirely on the health and comfort of residents, achieved by optimising the design of spaces in terms of air quality, nutrition, physical activity, sleep cycle, wellness, and productivity. “We want to have a certification that’s not just for one building or some buildings; we want to certify the whole development… to guide us in decisions to ensure it is sustainable and not just a marketing pitch,” he says.
Anahita Beau Champ – Spring Park
Looking at the panorama of real estate development in Mauritius, the North, West, and Central parts attract 80-85% of the transactions. But this has a consequence. These areas are denser, with more units and various developments of different levels. They are also more active, more vibrant, and offer more activities. According to Martial, the South and the East are more natural, untouched environments, with a more prestigious feel, so for Alteo to optimise opportunities on its land holding in the East, the group must establish a development that attracts people who recognise the benefit of being there.
RURAL WELLNESS COMMUNITY
Intent on maintaining its own identity, Alteo decided against a gated community and the small, dense developments of the North and West in favour of green, sustainable buildings close to nature that align with the site’s existing environment and spirit. “It’s all about quality of life, space, access to nature, quietness and security, where everything you need is within a five-or 10-minute walk,” says Martial.
Anahita Beau Champ – Palm Alley
The non-residential components, such as the beach and boat house, restaurant, gym, and school, are for anyone to use and easily accessible via Palm Alley, a pedestrian avenue lined with palm trees that runs through the land. Building happens only where it makes sense within the existing site infrastructure and the rural feel is maintained with natural traffic calming measures – roads that aren’t exactly straight and devoid of road markings, traffic signs and roundabouts, and landscaping to provide structure. Plants, trees and flowers are well established and undisturbed while productive landscaping with tropical fruit trees takes preference over high-maintenance lawns, of which there are none. There is also a working farm, stretching along a creek, producing local fruits, vegetables, aromatic plants, and flowers all year round through smart agriculture.
LOWER PRICE PER SQUARE METRE
Savvy investors are already securing commercial space for various office and business interests in the refurbished factory buildings. A South African homeowner has taken the first co-working office space in the revamped administration building. Other existing buildings will house the first primary school in the East, offering International Baccalaureate accreditation, and land has been allocated for a primary and secondary school to be built later once student numbers increase. A deal has been signed with a large gym operator to manage a 2,000m² gym and padel court offering. “The kind of businesses we attract are very different, entrepreneurs already working in agri-tech or similar, who don’t want to be in Ebene or Port Louis or Moka – the very central parts of Mauritius where the price per square metre is higher, and traffic congestion is greater,” says Martial.
Anahita Beau Champ – Penthouse
Meanwhile, more than 90% of the plots and about 30% of the off-plan (VEFA) residential units launched earlier this year in the L’Écho des Champs neighbourhood have been reserved, prompting planning for the launch of 28 more plots as part of the second residential phase by year-end. The first-phase launch was a limited offer of seven villas and 15 apartments (including three penthouses) for foreign investment and 31 serviced plots of land for purchase by Mauritian citizens.
BEST LOCATED, CENTRAL POSITIONS
The architecture follows the principles of the traditional Mauritian house: passive architecture, cross-ventilation, high roofs, and materials available in Mauritius, like shingle and thatch roofs, wood and volcanic stones. The villas are of different sizes (296m² and 329m²), have three bedrooms and three bathrooms, match the site’s orientation and topography, and are situated along Palm Alley. One enjoys optimal natural light all day, with living spaces facing north and south and views of the small woodland and Palm Alley. The other is designed to fully embrace the outdoor lifestyle. Both sides of this villa’s living space open onto the garden, integrating into nature and enhancing the sense of freedom. The villas are priced from R20,2m.
Anahita Beau Champ – Apartments
Meanwhile, the apartments are distributed among several residences and located in various spots throughout the estate, where they can blend into existing infrastructure. None of the apartments touches each other at ground level to enhance privacy. Only the penthouse connects adjacent blocks via a corridor joining the living area on one side to the bedroom on the other. The apartments with two or three bedrooms are 174m² and 191m² respectively, and the penthouses are 299m², priced from R8,4m.
Anahita Beau Champ – Demera Villa model 2
