European Golf Design is set to start construction on a new golf course in Cyprus in January.

The Larnaca Golf Resort, located at Tersefanou, close to the city’s international airport, has been in planning for six years, and is being developed by a Medgolf, a consortium of Cypriot businesses. Water will be provided by a desalination plant; the resort has permission to use up to 5,000 tonnes of seawater each day for this purpose. The resort will include Cyprus’s first PGA golf academy.

The project, valued at €350 million, is expected to take up to five years to complete. Phase one will include the golf course and clubhouse, while the other two phases will see several hundred villas and apartments added to the resort’s amenities.

With this year’s opening of Elea Golf Club in Paphos, Larnaca will be the seventh golf course in Cyprus. The Cypriot government has encouraged golf development in recent years, but water shortages have slowed the progress of a number of projects.