I’ve been a lurker on this forum for well over a year now and love the wealth of information shared by everyone on this community / forum.
I’m based in Dubai, and a query I had for those who have engaged with agents/companies that help their clients with the Portugese golden visa program (whether in Dubai or elsewhere in the world), is whether it is common to see these companies charge fees anywhere between 20,000 to 30,000 euros (for the property route)?
I have received 3 separate quotes from reputable companies that also have offices in Dubai and that seems to be the common range, and I was wondering if these are simply the prices being quoted for clients in Dubai or if it is a common trend elsewhere in the world as well?
Hello. I believe to get a meaningful answer and a fair comparison you need to set forth what such fees include. For example, are legal fees included in this? Does this include all fund setup/referral fees? For the property, does this include brokerage fees for the property or is that in addition?
Are you free to choose any real estate or investment fund you want, or is this for specific one? If the latter, are there padded fees into the investment itself?
My apologies for such a massively delayed reply (unfortunately some personal events got in the way), and thank you for replying back to my original post.
I should have provided more information in my original post. The quotes I received were for the property purchase option (and not for the fund option).
The EUR 20,000 to 30,000 fees excluded the following:
The investment itself (purchase of property and/or any rehabilitation works).
Stamp duty, municipal tax, land registry cost, notary costs, preemption right.
Resident permit application, government application fees.
Legal fees for renewal, the renewal application, government application fees for renewal.
Two of the three firms just labeled this 20,000 to 30,000 euro fee as “service fee” for their respective companies (I’m assuming brokerage fees for the properties are included in this fee).
I wonder if others out there (in other countries/cities) have also encountered similar price ranges from their respective agents.
It seems way overpriced by a factor of 2-3x.
Perhaps it’s a Dubai surcharge from the local firms, but you are free to hire a lawyer in Portugal or indeed anywhere else.
And I am not sure what kind of brokerage fee you expect to be included.
Normally the property seller pays the real estate agent fees, not the buyer.
If you want to hire a real estate agent on the buyer’s side to do the search/negotiations etc. then of course you can do that, but I would be surprised if GV legal firms included that by default in the quotes you got.
Thanks Tommy. That’s what I’d felt as well (that the amount being charged is far too high).
I believe hiring a buyer’s agent may actually be a more suitable route, so as to get the best property deal for oneself. 11Pier seems to be a popular recommendation on the forums (and also in Thomas Running’s ultimate guide to the golden visa).
Which route did you end up taking yourself if you don’t mind me asking? (it’s always useful to learn from others’ experiences).
I am pursuing the property investment option, but I am doing it ‘traditionally’ i.e. viewing the properties myself on-site. To search for the properties I used the aggregator sites first (e.g. imovirtual, Casasapo, etc.) and then contacted the estate agencies directly for the shortlisted properties in order to arrange the viewings.
In some cases, one agency was able to broker the viewings with other agencies, so as to simplify my viewings logistically.