Scots businessman plans elite boarding school for luxury Mauritius development

Deputy Business Editor

Wednesday 11 July 2012

A SCOTTISH businessman is hoping to open a boarding school as part of a multimillion-pound luxury resort in Mauritius.

GRAND PLANS: An artist's impression of the Azuri resort, a project headed by Murray Adair, below, chief executive of Indian Ocean Real Estate.

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GREIG CAMERON DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR

Murray Adair, chief executive of the Indian Ocean Real Estate Company, is heading the Azuri project to build 278 homes and a five-star 101-bedroom hotel on a 420-acre plot of land along the north-east coast of the island.

One aspect of the development involves creating an elite school which would be unique to the island and would hope to attract children from across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.Wellington College in Berkshire – whose alumni include rugby players Max and Thom Evans, Lord Strathclyde and impressionist Rory Bremner – will be a partner for the school.Mr Adair said: "The school will be on a 40-acre site. We plan to have 350 boarding places and the rest will go to local kids. We hope people who live in village will send kids there. "We expect a lot of children from Africa and India. For example, the number of kids in Nigeria who could afford the fees is 250,000 and Africa is developing very fast."Mr Adair, an architect who has worked in international property development for 20 years, has been surprised at the level of interest in the school.Speaking to The Herald on a rare visit home to Glasgow, he said: "It is the only project I have ever done where I have had investors calling me up asking if they can put money in."The property on the site is also being snapped up, with 75% of the homes already gone even though construction work only started in May.Non-nationals can only become resident on Mauritius, which offers a range of tax benefits including a flat 15% rate of income tax, by becoming property owners through an Integrated Resort Scheme (IRS).The Indian Ocean Real Estate Company's development is offering properties at between £320,000 to £530,000, which is lower than the £1.1 million average price for other IRS schemes. Mr Adair, who studied at Strathclyde University, said: "We looked at a lot of the existing projects in Mauritius and around the world and saw tourist resorts which were busy at certain times of the year. "We wanted to create a lifestyle village which will be busy 12 months a year with local people living there and those encouraged to come and live by the IRS."Mr Adair said the bulk of buyers have come from France and South Africa so far. However, there has been interest from the UK, Hong Kong and Australia.Mr Adair left Scotland in the early 1990s after qualifying as an architect and has worked across Asia, Singapore and South America. In 2010 he relocated to Mauritius to become a director at IOREC and was named chief executive in March last year.

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Scots businessman plans elite boarding school for luxury Mauritius development

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