The rest of Europe barely acknowledged its existence.

It's an ideal location for fish eaters, music lovers, kite flyers and sun-parishioners addicted to white sand and a slow, dawdling pace of life. The islands are unimaginably diverse; some like Sal, 30km long by 12km wide, are arid, flat and to some extent austere. Yet, the fact that the landscape is so parched and flat has made it a haven for super five-star hotels like the 1,000-bed Riu Funana-Garopa.

The local people are very friendly and unlike some Caribbean destinations, you can walk about freely and safely. And unlike the Med, you will not find a single high-rise hotel and never will, thanks to the Cape Verde government's stringent planning laws. The economy is service-oriented, with commerce, transport, tourism and public services accounting for 66% of GDP.

Other islands such as Sao Vicente are more 'green' and probably more edifying because the cultural capital Mindelo is abuzz with Creole music and a bustling economy that is on the 'up' every year. Mindelo is best known for its annual Baia das Gatas music festival and its dedicated cricket team.

Alternative islands like Santo Anta are famed for their high mountains and are popular with eco tourists. Fogo, one of the southern islands, is still classed as a 'live' volcano and looks like a lunar landscape with its red rock and black sand.

Yet, recently it was the rediscovery of Sal and Sao Vicente by Corkman Tom Sheehy that has prompted huge development over the next three years. Next week, Cape Verde Development (CVD) launches its final Phase of Paradise Beach on Sal itself. It consists of 220 two-bed apartments from 140,000, 88 one-bed penthouses from 120,000, six frontline villas from 700,000, two frontline semi-d villas from 349,000 and 60 threebed semi-d villas from 225,000. Located on 28 hectares of south-west coastline, within 15 minutes' walk of the tourist town of Santa Maria, the resort will also be home to a fourstar hotel.

CVD plans on completing a range of fiveto seven-star developments on two islands to include a 10-year master plan for 'Calheta Bay' golf and leisure resort on Sal's west coast, costing an initial 2bn. It is scheduled to launch in 2007 and will have an ecofriendly design. It is being developed with local partners Turim and Edituir and will feature two Erine Els 18-hole golf courses.

Over 6,000 units will be developed on this site. Other developments such as five-star Murdeira Beach Resort (Sal) launched this year. The five-star Bais das Gatas (Sao Vincente) will launch next year, as will the four-star resort Mar a Vista (Sao Vincente).

The a-la-carte menu of experts that makes up the whole team of CVD is quite impressive: PGA Golf Management, ERA economic research, Ernie Els Design Team, Nikki Beach, Lovejoy landscape architects, Cushman & Wakefield resort management, PWC taxation, ECP. ie project management, as well as master planners from Shanghai and Cork. On the last media trip, Eddie Hobbs was pottering about, so that has to be a 'sign' of some sort!

Tom Sheehy is very much the accidental developer, which makes this story all the more appealing. He worked in his father's furniture fit-out business in Cork for two decades. The advent of the Celtic Tiger meant sooner or later the business was to expand to doing 'whole fit-outs' of major developments in Dublin and beyond.

Eventually, his work brought him to Cape Verde. He was blown away by its charm.

"It didn't take long for people to realise that here was something incredibly special, " comments John O'Rahilly, sales director of Cape Verde Development, who is himself a town planner. "Tom knew this was an exclusive opportunity to develop a part of the world that has remained virtually untouched until now."

Luckily, local planning laws stipulate that developments cannot be built more than 80 metres to the white water mark, and that frontline properties can only range between one to three and a half stories high, so investors' and visitors' views will never be obscured. "Where else on the planet can you find that kind of guarantee, " concludes O'Rahilly.

Further information from www. capeverdedevelopment. com or Luana Rocha, 0023 -89833653. Andrea Pappin/Niamh Lyons: Financial Dynamics Business Communications; www. fd. com

NEED TO KNOW

Getting there: there are two weekly flights from London, one from Manchester on Tuesdays and flights will start direct from Dublin this Christmas with Falcon.

Weather: tropical with very little rainfall. Sunshine levels of 10 to 12 hours a day.

Political climate: Free of ethnic or religious strife.

Former Portuguese colony; independent for last 30 years.

Airports: seven in total. Sal and Sao Tiago have international airports; another is being constructed in Sao Vincente.