Real Estate in Portugal

One of the most important steps for a nice and easy relocation process is to choose the right place to live, be it a house, an apartment or even a ranch.

In Portugal, you can find all of these options.

The thing is, it’s not a simple task to rent or acquire a property remotely, as there are some activities that must be held in Portugal, and Viv Europe is here to help you.

Imagine the scene: you and your family arrive in Portugal, a 8 hours flight, you arrive in this beautiful country, you take a taxi and you arrive directly in your home, just as you imagined.

No need to activate electricity, turn on water supply, nothing. It’s all set up to you. That’s how we like our clients to experience Portugal. 

Walking near house

Need Help?

The activities that are related to the acquisition or renting of a property are many, and you can count on our assistance to make your life easier.

Real Estate

Search for a property throughout Portugal, according to your demands. We will visit the properties to make sure that what you see in picture is the same in “real life”.

After choosing the property, we will assist in many activities, such as dealing with banks in order to obtain a bank financing and also negotiating price and conditions with the seller (or realtor).

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Research

We will provide a full legal analysis on all documents related to the transaction in order to avoid scams or expenses heritage, including the notarization and certification of documents.

We will receive the property keys from the seller, activate all of the property essential services, such as energy, water and gas and leave the place in perfect conditions so as you will only need to get in and starting living there.

Yes, there is a lot to do. So why not counting on Viv Europe to make your life easier?

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What Can Go Wrong?

Let’s say you want to buy or rent an apartment alone, what can go wrong in this case?

First, you will certainly vulnerable, specially if you’re not in Portugal, that’s because your interests (as a buyer) won’t be represented. Remember that both the seller and the Real Estate want to sell the property.

So, there are some legal procedures that should be held before the transaction to protect the buyer, and only a truly representative can make sure that the transaction is secure.

A bad transaction can lead to the cancellation of acquisition, the need to pay for the property’s debts, and the list goes on.

Acquisition Timeline

First Stage

Tax Registration

Create your NIF (Tax Registration Number).

First Stage

Second Stage

Bank Account

Create your bank account in a Portuguese institution.

Second Stage

Third Stage

Searching an Selecting your Property

You tell us your property preferences and we will go search for it. No matter where you intend to live, we have the structure you need to present our portfolio so as you can choose your next home.

Third Stage

Forth Stage

Bank Financing

We can assist you with bank financing by selecting the best bank conditions for delivering the required amount to acquire your property. It’s important to consider the payment period, rate, expenses and the general conditions.

Viv Europe have some of the best partners to grant you interesting bank financing conditions.

Forth Stage

Fifth Stage

Negociation and Acquisition

Leave all the “stress” related to the acquisition of a property with us. We will handle the negotiation and acquisition process, so that you can buy the best property at the best price. A team of lawyers will manage the due diligence to ensure that you won’t have any problems later on.

Fifth Stage

Sixth Stage

Registries Updating

All registries related to the acquisition of the property will be carried out by Viv Europe, such as: the property acquisition registration, your NIF, property bills, bank information, your residence permit, etc.

Sixth Stage

Seventh Stage

Handing over the Keys

When you arrive in Portugal, everything will be settled up so that you can just receive your keys and enjoy Portugal, stress free.

Seventh Stage
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Why Viv Europe?

Some reasons:

  • Experienced professionals (+ than 10 years)
  • Team of lawyers to review your documents
  • Presence throughout Portugal
  • More than 15 partners to assist in many activities
  • Assistance in complementary activities (such as bank financing, property rental process, etc.)
  • Experience in assisting clients from more than 10 countries

Questions & Answers

Relocation is a service provided by companies focused on offering for the client a complete package of services intended to moving to another country.

Among these services, we can emphasize those related to real estate services, including the searching, recording of videos / photos, handling the rent or purchasing paperwork and the required activities to register the property certificates in Public agencies, before the arriving of the client in Portugal.

Even the real estate bank financing can be managed by the company.

The main goal is to conclude the property related-tasks, so that the expat won’t have to worry about anything related to his / her accommodation when arriving in Portugal, and just enjoy his / her place in that country.

First, depending on your country of origin, you will have a different perception about Portugal.

In terms of ease of adaptation, Portugal is a country that internalizes what is known about European Lifestyle.

In other words, Portuguese people are hard workers, but they also like to enjoy life and most of them do not want to wait for retirement to appreciate the “good things in life”.

This type of attitude is reflected in Portugal (the country) itself.

That is why in Portugal we can always feel a sense of tranquility, wherever you are.

Getting rich is not that important over here, as long as you have good food on the table, places to have fun with your beloved ones, beautiful landscapes to fall in love with and, obviously, a stress-free environment.

Overall, that’s what you will find in Portugal.

In general, people are very welcoming in Portugal (specially in the north region), they love being close to others and celebrate everything that can be celebrated (unfortunately, Covid changed this scenario a bit).

Portugal also offers:

  • Good food in the supermarket (eg. Pingo Doce, Continente and Jumbo), as this country dispose delicious national meat, fish and sweets. Also, extraordinary food are also imported from its neighbors countries, such as Spain, France, Italy and Germany (there is actually one “main” supermarket for each of these countries, eg. Mercadona, Froiz,  Spar, Lidl and Aldi)
  • Good public transport system. You can go almost anywhere in Portugal by train and move using the metro in the biggest cities.
  • A good Public Healthcare and Educational system, as it will be better addressed later in this article.
  • A lot of green places, specially for those who want to chill out and relax.

Depending on where you live in Portugal, your experience in relation to communication can change.

If you intend to move to a small city, with a more traditional appeal, you’ll probably struggle a little to understand and to be understood at the beginning.

The good news is that, in medium and large cities, English is widely spoken. Thus, probably, you won’t have a hard time communicating in Lisbon, Porto, Algarve and even in Braga, Coimbra and Setubal, for example.

These are touristic cities that relies on English to attract people from all over the world.

Also, more and more, English is taught in school as a second language, therefore those Portuguese citizens who are younger that 30 will probably have no problem in communicating with this second language.

Even tough English is widely spoken, if you’re planning to live in Portugal, it’s always advisable to enroll in a Portuguese course, specially to understand the basics.

NHS (National Health System) is responsible for providing basic health care services to people and expats living in Portugal.

The quality of the healthcare service is simply excellent!

I, myself, like to have a complete checkup of my health conditions twice a year, and the way this service is performed is simply remarkable.

According to the 2018 Euro Health Consumer Index, Portugal was ranked 13th for its quality of its health system.

It is important to note that Public Healthcare in Portugal is not 100% free, as you will have to pay a small amount to be consulted, but it probably won’t exceed 15€.

If you’re an expat, you won’t have problem registering at the Local Health Post (Posto de Saúde) in order to obtain your Utente Number and start using Portuguese Public Health Service.

A Residency Certificate and NIF number will be required for this registration.

There are certainly many costs associated with buying a property. Below you can find a list of them:

  • Municipal Tax related to Property Transactions (IMT)
  • Stamp Tax
  • Municipal Property Tax (IMI)
  • Notary fees
  • Bank fees (if purchased through a financial bank)
  • Costs related to issuing certificates

The sum of these costs can vary widely according to the specifications of the property.

For a full analysis of tax in Portugal, click here.

The less knowledge about the acquisition process, the more likely you are to be scammed.

Unfortunately, there are those who take advantage of a person’s lack of knowledge on a particular subject to try to obtain money illegally.

To prevent this situation, we strongly advise the assistance of a lawyer so as not to waste time and money in this process.

Maybe you’re considering choose Portugal because this is a safe country.

Portugal is considered the safest country in the European Union and the 3rd globally. That’s indeed something to consider when choosing a country to spend your life with your loved ones.

In 2014, Portugal ranked 18th position in the Safety Index and climbed to the third position in 2019, and maintained this same position for 3 consecutive years.

Here is the list of the safest countries in 2020:

  1. Iceland
  2. New Zealand
  3. Portugal
  4. Austria
  5. Denmark
  6. Canada
  7. Singapore
  8. Slovenia
  9. Japan
  10. Czech Republic

There is not so much to talk about on this subject, as the numbers speak for themselves.

Just be sure that walking on the streets at night will no longer be a distressing situation.

First of all, living in Portugal as an employee does not mean that you will receive the minimum wage.

Many companies pay more than this amount, especially in Lisbon and Porto region.

In addition to the salary, some companies (specially the big ones) offer food and transportation tickets, health insurance, among other benefits.

But, in any case, you probably won’t receive much more than 1,500€ if you intend to work for a Portuguese company as an employee, and this can be very frustrating (which is why many Portuguese emigrate so often to other European countries in order to find better working conditions).

But looking on the bright side, the cost of living in Portugal is very attractive. You will certainly not spend that much money living in a Portuguese city, especially those not touristic.

The best case scenario would be live in Portugal and remotely work for a foreign company, as your salary will be associated to that company’s country, without considering tax, of course.

For an in-depth analysis of the cost of living in Portugal, you can consult this article.