The Year Thus Far

Published on 21st October, 2013

'David Rowat' from www.portugalproperty.com is very optimistic about the future. "This year has certainly seen a return of clients who have made a decision to buy before arriving in Portugal. It seems the last five years of fact finding and indecision are gone and there is much more confidence in the market. The buyers really do cover a large geographical area - of course we have the traditional markets from the UK but it seems the rest of Europe and beyond are continuing their love affair with Portugal. Tax incentives from the Non Habitual Residences Scheme has attracted French and Swedish clients in an abundance. The Golden Visa scheme (allowing residency when over 500,000 euros is spent on a property) has attracted non-EU clients from China, Russia, South Africa and Brazil. This extra influx combined with an improving economy has seen demand increase. Unfortunately, on the other hand, the supply of new properties onto the market is a real concern and until the banks financial constraints ease and they provide construction finance the position is unlikely to change for the next few years. This leads to demand exceeding supply and why some vendors are now selling within one month of their properties being placed for sale. Also we have a paradox with some brand new properties being cheaper than resales - due to the developers taking a loss as opposed to existing owners not prepared to drop prices based on having paid more in the past. All these factors lead to a position of recovery in the prices although that is yet to be seen. It is still a buyers market with most vendors unaware of the 'real' demand building up. So we are still able to negotiate good prices for our clients. For how long that will continue will remain to be seen"

Published in: News and Updates / Portugal Property / Site News