omostra06
New Member
Central Portugal
An Agents View.
After a very successful summer with lots of overseas interest in our region of Central portugal, the start of the winter has already been better than expected, November saw us double the normal number of sales for that month, resulting in 2 sales per week for the month
most of these were to overseas buyers, although we expect December to be a little slower things for some registered Agents in Central portugal this year have been great overall.
One thing we are seing an increase in is buyers awarness of the different regions, their price differences and the climate. over the last few years more and more information on these central portugal regions as been published. This helps buyers interested in Central Portugal make informed choices about the Good areas and the bad areas, some regions of central portugal have very cheap property for sale, but as always its cheap for a reason, remote, lack of amenities, lack of employment, etc, all play a part in making some regions less desirable and not offer good quality of life.
We have also over the last year seen an increasing number of expats that want to sell up after perhaps one or two years, the reason for most of these people is that there is not enough to do where they choose to buy and lack of good quality amenities, e.g. shops, resturants, entertainment, schools or work opertunities. is a big resaon for these expats selling up and moving closer to bigger towns like Tomar, Abrantes, Torres Novas, santarem,etc all within easy links to lisbon city and airport as well as being big enough to offer lots to do as well as work opertunities. another factor that seems to play a part is the weather, north of the region around Tomar the weather can be very cold, damp and even have snow and ice in winter, some people didnt realise this when they bought "a place in the sun" so have had enough of cold damp winters and want to move further south, as little as one hours drive south can make a massive difference to winter temps.
I always suggest that the best way to move to Portugal and make a success of it is take your time, perhaps rent first to see if the region suits you, before buying and maybe struggling to resell if you buy in the wrong region. think about what you need closby to enjoy or afford life here, if you need to work then make sure you buy near a big town, if the locals have to move from small villages and declining rural towns, think how much harder it will be for a expats to find paid employment.
some property in central portugal appears at first glance to be very cheap or great value, but some care should be taken, some of these cheap properties are in rural locations, or close to declining towns, so the owners have had to reduce the prices to get any interest in the property. In some of these location property can take years to sell, one of the worse situations weve seen with these locations is , people (who perhaps dont know the different regions) buy a cheap house and then restore it, what they then have is an expensive house in a location where properties only sell because they are cheap, very hard to sell in that situation.
If the locals are moving to bigger towns to find work and better quality of life, the overseas buyers want the same, so if you end up owning a property in a location that you have tired of, or found very hard to make a living from, then it could be very hard and time consuming to get a buyer interested, not to mention the possibilty of losing money if you have to reduce to get a sale inorder to move on.
Over the last 6 years or so I have seen many expat owned property come onto the market, advertised as B&B or guest house, in these less desirable regions, where the owner has tried to make a living and it just has not worked, some places people just dont want to visit, regardless of hard the owner works at marketing the business. so they sell up in order to move to busier locations, expensive mistake to make, good research before buying should avoid this.
To balance this,
I know several expats that make a very good living here from buying restoring and selling on property, these people are very careful only to buy in saught after locations, and are carefull about choosing the right type of property. some of these properties in desirable locations can sell very quickly, we have sold many within a few days of them coming onto the market. as always its location, location, location that makes the difference between making a good living selling property or being stuck with a property and not making any profit at all!
Any where around one hour from Lisbon is a good safe region, more so if its near to castelo do bode lake, the southern part of the lake is less than one hour from lisbon, this makes these villages/towns (Tomar & Abrantes 10 mins from lake) in that location great places to buy into, no problem for resell should you decide to move as thousands of people from Lisbon look for and buy holiday homes around the southern part of the lake and because its a popular place to live and go on holiday there are loads of resturants and shops to service these people.
Take your time if your looking at buying in Central Portugal, its a big region with very dramaticaly different prices for the various locations.
Hope this helps
Derek
An Agents View.
After a very successful summer with lots of overseas interest in our region of Central portugal, the start of the winter has already been better than expected, November saw us double the normal number of sales for that month, resulting in 2 sales per week for the month
most of these were to overseas buyers, although we expect December to be a little slower things for some registered Agents in Central portugal this year have been great overall.
One thing we are seing an increase in is buyers awarness of the different regions, their price differences and the climate. over the last few years more and more information on these central portugal regions as been published. This helps buyers interested in Central Portugal make informed choices about the Good areas and the bad areas, some regions of central portugal have very cheap property for sale, but as always its cheap for a reason, remote, lack of amenities, lack of employment, etc, all play a part in making some regions less desirable and not offer good quality of life.
We have also over the last year seen an increasing number of expats that want to sell up after perhaps one or two years, the reason for most of these people is that there is not enough to do where they choose to buy and lack of good quality amenities, e.g. shops, resturants, entertainment, schools or work opertunities. is a big resaon for these expats selling up and moving closer to bigger towns like Tomar, Abrantes, Torres Novas, santarem,etc all within easy links to lisbon city and airport as well as being big enough to offer lots to do as well as work opertunities. another factor that seems to play a part is the weather, north of the region around Tomar the weather can be very cold, damp and even have snow and ice in winter, some people didnt realise this when they bought "a place in the sun" so have had enough of cold damp winters and want to move further south, as little as one hours drive south can make a massive difference to winter temps.
I always suggest that the best way to move to Portugal and make a success of it is take your time, perhaps rent first to see if the region suits you, before buying and maybe struggling to resell if you buy in the wrong region. think about what you need closby to enjoy or afford life here, if you need to work then make sure you buy near a big town, if the locals have to move from small villages and declining rural towns, think how much harder it will be for a expats to find paid employment.
some property in central portugal appears at first glance to be very cheap or great value, but some care should be taken, some of these cheap properties are in rural locations, or close to declining towns, so the owners have had to reduce the prices to get any interest in the property. In some of these location property can take years to sell, one of the worse situations weve seen with these locations is , people (who perhaps dont know the different regions) buy a cheap house and then restore it, what they then have is an expensive house in a location where properties only sell because they are cheap, very hard to sell in that situation.
If the locals are moving to bigger towns to find work and better quality of life, the overseas buyers want the same, so if you end up owning a property in a location that you have tired of, or found very hard to make a living from, then it could be very hard and time consuming to get a buyer interested, not to mention the possibilty of losing money if you have to reduce to get a sale inorder to move on.
Over the last 6 years or so I have seen many expat owned property come onto the market, advertised as B&B or guest house, in these less desirable regions, where the owner has tried to make a living and it just has not worked, some places people just dont want to visit, regardless of hard the owner works at marketing the business. so they sell up in order to move to busier locations, expensive mistake to make, good research before buying should avoid this.
To balance this,
I know several expats that make a very good living here from buying restoring and selling on property, these people are very careful only to buy in saught after locations, and are carefull about choosing the right type of property. some of these properties in desirable locations can sell very quickly, we have sold many within a few days of them coming onto the market. as always its location, location, location that makes the difference between making a good living selling property or being stuck with a property and not making any profit at all!
Any where around one hour from Lisbon is a good safe region, more so if its near to castelo do bode lake, the southern part of the lake is less than one hour from lisbon, this makes these villages/towns (Tomar & Abrantes 10 mins from lake) in that location great places to buy into, no problem for resell should you decide to move as thousands of people from Lisbon look for and buy holiday homes around the southern part of the lake and because its a popular place to live and go on holiday there are loads of resturants and shops to service these people.
Take your time if your looking at buying in Central Portugal, its a big region with very dramaticaly different prices for the various locations.
Hope this helps
Derek
