Because as well as the new eco-properties at home, we are also seeing a growing number of holiday homes that will impact less on the immediate environment, the planet, and your pocket. 

Richard Branson, he of the multiple fingers and pies, is hoping to be among the first providing the answer to a more moral holiday, with his purchase of the 120-acre island of Moskito, in the British Virgin Islands.

Branson is planning to spend the next three years converting it into a ground-breaking carbon-neutral eco-resort, complete with solar, wind, and possibly wave power, an organic farm and electric cars.

Eco-Homes On Thai Island

Currently at the top end of the market must be the Soneva Kiri resort in Thailand, which opens next year, and aims to be carbon-neutral by 2010.

The complex, which is set on the island of Ko Kut, and can only be accessed by speedboat, will be comprised of 46 villas among the island’s 100 acres of rainforest, and is constructed of locally-grown eucalyptus and makka wood.

With all the usual energy-saving gizmos, and electric powered golf carts and bicycles the island’s only transport, the villas may save the earth’s resources, but if you want to save money, look elsewhere.

Selling at $3 million for a 4-bed villa, buyers at the Soneva Kiri are unlikely to be influenced by low fuel bills.

Or, if you are attracted to a green holiday home that makes a positive impact on the local community, Kittitian Hill, on St Kitts in the West Indies may fit the bill.

This un-gated community combines luxury private residences, a championship golf course, and spa with a philosophy of sustainable development.

With programmes to train local people in organic farming, computing, hospitality and small business development, Kittian Hill claims to represent a new business model for resort development in the Caribbean.

Offset Your Travel

Thailand, South Africa, India, the Seychelles: it seems there is hardly a far flung location that isn’t planning an eco-development.  But herein lies the problem. No matter how green your destination, flying there produces tons of harmful emissions.

According to a calculator supplied by www.chooseclimate.org, a return flight to South Africa’s Zimbali Eco-resort would use up an individual’s total sustainable carbon emissions budget for almost a year and a half.

The answer, some say, is to offset your emissions. Companies such as climatefriendly.org will, for a price, ‘neutralise’ your carbon emissions.

The idea is that they calculate the amount of damage you have done and help you to make amends by put an appropriate amount of cash into carbon-reducing projects, such as tree planting or wind farm building.

BedZed Abroad

Pooran Desai, co-founder of independent environmental organisation BioRegional says: "We support offsetting, but it’s in no way a solution to the problems caused by CO2 emissions.

"If we’re talking about tree planting there’s just not enough land on the planet."

BioRegional, which brought us BedZED, the UK’s largest eco development, has turned its attentions overseas.

Under the name of One Planet Living, and in partnership with developer Pelicano and the WWF, the organization is working on an ambitious eco-community in Portugal.

It is investing €1.1 billion in building the Mata de Sesimbra eco-tourism project south of Lisbon.

8,000 zero-carbon, zero-waste eco homes, hotels, shops and community facilities will be built for up to 30,000 people.

This project promises to not only conserve the local environment, but to improve it by returning 4,800 hectares of degraded logging plantations and quarries to native woodland. 

And it will create a €90 million sustainable public transport network for the region, and provide hybrid eco-shuttles, free bicycles and car clubs on-site.

And it’s not for millionaires only. A one-bed flat in Mata de Sesimbra will cost about £60,000 and a large five-bed villa £600,000.

Travel Issues: The Rail Way

But how does BioRegional reconcile the damage that will be caused by tourists reaching this green haven? The answer, says Desai, is to make it easy to get there without taking to the air. 

"It is an issue," says Desai. "But we’ll be promoting low carbon ways for people to reach the site. We’re promoting public transport, with the fast rail link across Spain to Lisbon. And from there we’ll be operating shuttle buses."

The number of green holiday destinations that are reachable by train is growing. Savills International is currently handling the sales of ‘local’ eco-developments in Montenegro, Switzerland and Austria.

Jeremy Rollason, a director at Savills International, says: "We’ve got eco-projects in Thailand, Cape Verde, and elsewhere, but it can be easier in the more developed countries where they have more sophisticated consultants. "And, of course, there’s been a lot of talk about air travel and that’s one of the reasons European countries are getting together to improve rail links.

Green Plans For Montenegro

Savills International is poised to start marketing the first carbon-neutral development in the former Yugoslavia.

The Tara Mountain Village near Kolasin in Montenegro promises to combine the best of the past with the technology of the future, with hydroelectric power and geothermal heating, and with transport on the resort via skis, electric car or pony.

But is this all just a gimmick? No, says Rollason, it’s the future, and it’s good news for all of us.

Because, he says, as well as reducing carbon emissions, the trend for eco properties is leading to homes that are cheaper to buy and cheaper to run.

"It’s not just the greenies that would be attracted to an eco property now, any buyer would. And ultimately it will be cheaper if you can use something that’s free".

"At our development in Austria being eco-friendly has made it cheaper, probably the Swiss development too".

"Developers are definitely becoming more environmentally conscious. If it helps to sell the properties, fantastic, but equally if you can capitalize on natural resources, why wouldn’t you?"

This article first appeared on FindaProperty.com - a leading property web-site with a comprehensive search facility for house-hunters to find a home – both sales and rentals. Launched in 1997, FindaProperty.com now publishes the details of over 382,599 properties to buy or rent from over 6,772 different agent offices. FindaProperty.com attracts over 1.8 million unique visitors generating 120 million page impressions a month.