I’ve been researching real estate in Portugal for a while, in order to apply for a Portugal Golden Visa.
A couple of months ago, I saw an ad from a project in Lisbon called Lisbon Square Prima Collection. I filled out a form and got in touch with the people. I spoke to a female sales representative, I believe she was Arabic.
She went on to brag how they are the best at this, how they are the best at that, how they define the industry and all that typical sales pitch. The attitude was annoying, but the project looked ok from the brochure she shared.
We had some correspondence and then they went silent off the face of the earth.
I wonder if this was some sort of a scam that they put out there to sell “imaginary units” to buyers like myself? Does anyone know anything about it?
Also, are there any real estate projects you would recommend, preferably in central Lisbon?
Lisbon Square is offered by Optylon Krea which is an established company.
Who knows who you spoke with as you did not provide any details. It is possible there are middle-men, so to speak, soliciting interest and taking a cut for referring to Optylon Krea. Just because they went silent does not mean it is a scam. Maybe they felt you were not a qualified prospect?
If you have been researching “for a while” you probably know there are perhaps hundreds of real estate projects that would qualify. I recommend you read through the forums as it is impossible to summarize or recommend just one without knowing what you want. Nomadgate has a full list of companies you can contact for more information. I think that is a better approach than asking a group for a specific recommendation since there are so many options available.
As for Lisbon Square Prima, I read a bit about this project. You own the property and it can qualify for golden visa. The company will manage the property and you will receive guaranteed 3% yield when project is completed in about 2.5 years. If you average this over a 5 year period, you have 2.5 years of 0% yield and 2.5 years of 3% yield. This provides a net yield over 5 years of about 1.5%. From my perspective, it is not a great investment but if you want safety of principal, then perhaps this can deliver that.
The Lisbon Square project was paused for now and therefore, they are no longer taking investors. Mercan also offers commercial real estate options for investors but these projects are based in Porto and Evora. They hosted a webinar last week. If you are interested, you can request a recording of the webinar here.
judging by the defensive tone of the first response to your post above, it seems like the project’s developer just responded to your query, the developer is not dead after all
one thing is true
there are plenty of fish in the market both for real estate projects and for vc funds in Portugal
left and right…
so i recommend you not to get hung up on why a developer is acting amateurish and jump on to the million other, probably more reliable options out there…
Nice to meet you and thanks for joining our forum!
I’m a staff member at Nomad Gate and you can see a bit more about me when you click on my profile. We are monitoring the forum daily and doing our best to eliminate “undercover promotion” to keep this space as transparent as possible. Feel free to flag a post or PM me or Thomas if you see anything suspicious and we will definitely investigate it as we have no tolerance for this kind of behavior.
