What steps should you take to find a house?
What steps should you take to find a house?

So you’ve decided to buy a house in Portugal. Now what? What with everything being in Portuguese and the property market being so different, it can be quite daunting for first-time ex-pat buyers. Fear not! Here’s our handy guide to all the different ways of finding your dream home:

Firstly, what kind of property are you looking for? Will it be a permanent residence or a holiday home? What kind of features are indispensable for you? The more you can specify what you want, the easier it will be to find.

Where? Portugal has all kinds of landscapes and regions … mountains, beaches, cities, the dry south, the green north … which is best for you?

Of course, it’s also a must to have a budget in mind before you start looking. How much are you willing to spend to make your Portuguese dream come true?

Ways to do it

Through an estate agent …or agência imobiliária as they’re called in Portugal. This is very handy if you know the exact area you want to buy in as the estate agents know the local properties like the back of their hands. That said, they are usually set up to meet the needs of native Portuguese citizens, not foreigners, and as such may try to take more than their fair share of finder’s fees.

Property websites: You can cut out the middle-man using www.idealista.pt, a property website where sellers post their houses directly. It’s easy to use, with loads of options to select the perfect type of home for you, from Country Homes and Penthouse apartments to plots of land for development. Alternatively, you search by region, price, size, publication date and many more, and on top of all this, the site offers all sorts of mortgage services and advice for ex-pats, so you really can’t go wrong. Better yet, it’s in English!

It’s also advisable, once you’ve found a potential home, to visit it in person before you buy, in which case you’ll want to stay in a hotel for a while. This also gives you a chance to get to know better the area in which you’re going to be buying, to know if it’s right for you.

Happy hunting!