Sound investment?

I play golf each week at Konopiste (www.gcko.cz) with various real estate professionals and the one topic of conversation that always crops up is whether we would buy residential property next to or near a golf course in the Czech Republic. Next door to the course is a long abandoned development that died due to lack of pre sales but was it a victim of the recession or just a bad scheme? In Spain, Portugal the Caribbean or Florida these schemes are sold at a premium and mostly off plan so what did the Developer do that was so wrong here? The big thing for us is the commuting distance from Prague . Whilst 50km is not far and only takes around 45 minutes it only takes one crash on the motorway or bad weather conditions and your travel time is doubled. The other issue is what else is there to do in the area apart from play golf?Not a lot as it happens and the only decent restaurant for miles around is at the golf course. Schools are another issue especially for the expats. When you have more than 1 child attending the English or British International schools in Prague 4 then the mom taxi service runs into overdrive and the long travel time just does not work. But what about the golf tourists, couldn't you rent the houses to these people? Nice idea in principle and again this works in Spain but the main reason tourists still come to the Czech Republic is because of the historical centre of Prague and being 50km away does not cut the mustard.
So where do you buy property that works for normal family life, has good schools within an 8km distance, shops and amenities, an aqua park,sports facilities,nice restaurants and good accessibility? For me the sensible choice is Novy Svet at Benice. This multi phased development fulfills all the requirements of any multicultural family. Having sold all the show homes in the first phase the second phase has now been released with the added advantage that the internal fit out is done by you, enabling you to not only save money but have exactly what you want from day 1 without having to compromise on somebody else's pre chosen style. The price reflects this option as well so investment value is already built in. Will your house value be worth less than one of the show houses sold at a premium ? The answer is no and that puts you firmly in the sound, solid investment seat. For more information about Benice go to www.orco.cz