What are foreigners looking for when they invest in Portugal? “A piece of the country’s history…”

Lisbon has definitely entered onto the radar of foreign investors, a scenario that is not just a passing trend, but seems to have come to stay. Colm Wilkinson, Regional Manager of Lisbon PortugalProperty.com, moved to Lisbon 13 years ago and says he is in love with the capital. But what are foreigners looking for when they invest in real estate in Portugal? "A piece of the country's history", he says in an interview with idealista/news.

"Renovated historic buildings with modern facilities: air conditioning, private lift... all new and nicely finished, but always maintaining the original appearance, the original facades. Investors want a piece of this country's history," says the Irishman, who arrived in Lisbon in 2005.

According to him, “most of the customers who invest” through PortugalProperty.com do not want to move to the country. "What they want are central properties that remain authentic with Portuguese culture. The facades, the views... the idea is for investors to buy the properties and renovate them, while maintaining the aesthetic of the city centre. That's what you have to value. This is an intrinsic value of the real estate market. One of the peculiarities of the historic centre of Lisbon is that it is not possible to build really high buildings with 35 or 97 floors. This adds value because traditions are maintained," he explains.

Mainly foreign customers

The client base of this real estate mediator, which has six offices in the country (five in the Algarve and one in Lisbon, on Avenida da Liberdade) is dominated by overseas investors. "We are focused on the international market. I'm not saying that we don't have Portuguese customers, but they are predominantly international," says Colm Wilkinson, adding that less than 2% of the company's customers are Portuguese nationals.

So, who are these people? Most investors are private individuals, people who have money and who "prefer not to invest in the stock market", preferring to opt for "something safe, low risk and not necessarily with a very high return".

The origin of the clients is diverse, although the majority (65%) are European investors. "Our clientele is mainly from Northern Europe, France, the United Kingdom... but we have many clients from the Middle East, Asia and South Africa," says the manager, adding that most of the customers contact the company because of the experience it has acquired in recent years. "They know we'll have the product they're looking for," he says.

This semi-detached triplex house is located in Príncipe Real and costs 1,560,000 euro / PortugalProperty.com

"In Portugal there are two markets, which is something unique"

According to Colm Wilkinson, PortugalProperty.com has announced around 10,000 properties on its website, and many have been online for over three years: "There are two markets in Portugal, which is something unique - the local residential market and the rest. In the first case, you don't normally buy property cash-in-hand. They're houses near the subway, work, etc., and that's not our market. In the last 12 months, 70% of what we have sold was never even on the website: they are properties that arrive to us as pre-releases and that, even before taking photographs and advertising them on the web, are sold. That’s our market.”

The mediator's expansion plan is ambitious, with the opening of four or five offices in the next five years, in particular one in Porto. "Our office in Lisbon is generating almost the same as the five offices in the Algarve, which is interesting, because when we arrived in Portugal what international investors wanted was different from what they are looking for now. They used to look for properties with golf courses and beaches but now, in Lisbon, international clients want to feel the city and go to restaurants," said the manager.

It should be noted that last year, as revealed by Colm Wilkinson, PortugalProperty.com processed around 260 properties, slightly less than in 2016, but the average value of sales increased by 20% to around 530,000 euro, compared to 460,000 euro in 2016.