My wife would like to invest in residential property

Residencies & citizenships
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At some pont in August of 2023 I will accompany my wife to explore the purchase of residential properties in Portugal. Our primary preference would be to reside in a coastal community. Residing inland is not out of the question, and we are open to exploring opportunities inland that has a close proximity to the coast. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

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be prepared to

  • have a hard time finding anything to buy
  • overpay when you do so, and/or get the leftovers
  • lawyer up
  • spend half a year dealing with paperwork
  • be unable to let it out because you won’t be able to get a license to do so

you may do better the farther away you get from the coast. It’s still possible to get licenses to let as you go farther in. If you can find anyone that wants to live there.

You can find ruins to renovate easily enough. Just expect to take multiple years and lose lots of hair in attempting to actually renovate.

Finding coastal properties is this side of impossible. I know, I’ve been watching for a while, and I’m not even assuming I can rent or airbnb it. Everyone wants to live in a coastal community.

Portugal should just hang out the “no vacancy” sign.

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Interesting opinion from Jeff :slight_smile: but if you are looking for some coastal positivity feel free to dm me.

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Jeff is essentially correct. Buying oceanview property at a reasonable price is not realistic. Sort of similar to buying property in Porto or Lisbon. It can be done but you are competing with a lot of people who know a lot more than you and much better connected than you

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I am not sure what you mean by ‘reasonable price’. Any property for sale is advertized at a certain price, which can be more or less in-line with the ‘market price’ at a point in time, while we also know the market is continually changing. If by saying ‘reasonable’ you mean ‘below market’ or ‘undervalued’ then sure, that would not be realistic to find for an average ‘unconnected’ buyer. But why would someone want to look for below-market anyway? Any offer like that is usually associated with some sort of a problematic property.
So, does the oceanview property generally cost more than in-land? Yes, of course.
Is it possible to find an oceanview property that is reasonably priced vis-a-vis other such properties? That’s a yes too.

In any case, these are all speculations without knowing too much of the requestor’s objectives, as I do not see @lee.neil.evans mentioning the price in his question at all.

Now in regards to competing with other buyers
 I would actually think that anyone who gets to this forum is already in some top ~5% when it comes to ‘knowing a lot more than other people’ :rofl:

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@jb4422
just on these two points:
do you refer to half-year as a general time-frame for a property purchase? Or specifically coastal? Because I am not sure there would be any difference, and generally the timing is much shorter (to my knowledge).
Half-year sounds more like a UK market experience :slight_smile:

There is no licence required for a long-term letting, unless I missed something big? AL does require a licence, but then again, obtaining one is not restricted unless it is an apartment, where you’d need consent from the rest of the apartments’ owners?

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Have you any experience renting to locals? Seems like a miserable plan based on how overly tenant friendly Portugal is. But perhaps I’m misinformed

I’m fairly certain AL licenses are basically impossible to get in most places, at least in Lisbon

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I wouldn’t expect it to be any different for coastal or not-coastal. Experiences with purchasing on AFIP seem to vary widely.

AL is subject to the other tenants in the building, yes, and now certain areas of certain locales are simply now being blocked from any new licenses. It depends on where you are. And PS attempted to ban all new AL licenses as part of MH, so that’s a sword of damocles hanging over your head. My point was more that you can’t assume you will be able to.

I agree there is no license for long-term let, though there seem to be a number of constraints and gotchas that are different from the US experience. Whether you can let for enough to make it worth your while is another matter - see various other discussions about rent control, plus low yield levels as it is - but of course maybe small yield is better than no yield, it depends on your goals.

I agree reasonable, in terms of price, is in the eye of the beholder.

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Why not just share your positivity with everyone?

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Responding to the popular demand, let me share some additional observations based on my experience:

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I think a big part of it is expectations from where you are now

In the USA the way Portugal keeps things slow and bureaucratic would be unacceptable. In other European countries it seems far more the norm.

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I find these kinds of comparison quite amusing.
One quick look at the US apostille thread would make anyone jealous of the US efficiency :rofl:

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On the day to day stuff, anyway :slight_smile:

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OK, now we know someone who buys properties as a daily routine
 :smile:

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I thought this was a safe space for People of Means :pensive:

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