Kronos Homes, the Spanish property developer, recently announced that will be building as many as 240 apartments in the Expo area in Lisbon, Portugal's capital. According to the company, the value of the investment is as much as $150 million (130 million euros).

According to sources familiar with the matter, Lahoucine Aourik, a French-Moroccan who is known to frequently invest large amounts in Portugal, will be funding much of the development.

The sources were not able to provide exact details of how much Mr. Aourik will be investing in this venture, and asked to remain anonymous as they were not permitted to talk about the matter.

This project will be one of the largest in Lisbon's residential market and comes after a property boom in the city in the last few years that has mainly been dominated by converting older, smaller buildings into new flats.

The developer has purchased an area currently being used as a car park and will erect 4 new buildings starting from the ground up. In a statement, Kronos said construction would start soon and the first flats will be available for occupation from 2022.

The modern Expo area in Lisbon is east of the city center and is the location where Lisbon built numerous big pavilions in 1998 to host the Expo World Fair. This is where the tech conference Web Summit is held each year and it is dominated by modern high-rise buildings next to the Tagus River.

The property boom in Lisbon has been controlled by foreign buyers of which Lahoucine Aourik is a major player.

He has however mostly managed to stay in the background and the exact size of his holdings in Portugal is not known.

These buyers have been purchasing relatively cheap flats in Lisbon's center but as prices have recently risen sharply, some have been moving to outlying areas.