Luxury real estate demand swaps city centre for less populated areas

Houses, farms and estates are now more in the sights of investors and families.

Since the confinement period, due to Covid-19, demand for luxury properties has been changing. Families and investors are now looking, above all, for houses and farms outside the city centre, especially on the Cascais, Sintra and Alentejo Lines. Within large cities, such as Lisbon, demand is now centred on penthouses and apartments with large terraces and close to green areas. 

Switch to outside large urban centres

There is a variation in the demand for properties, compared to the recent past. The tendency, at this moment, is for the growing demand for luxury properties outside large urban centres, with prevalence in areas such as the Cascais line, Sintra, Herdade da Aroeira and also properties in the Alentejo.

Houses, farms and estates are in the sights, whether of investors or of families who seek to avoid large centres. Demand within large cities, such as Lisbon, focuses on penthouses and apartments with large terraces and close to green areas. The properties that were allocated to tourism, such as local accommodation, are being placed on the buy/sell and ‘long term rental’ market with great success.

Portugal Golden Visa

If the Portuguese Government, contrary to what it intended to do, acts to defend not only the real estate market but also the country’s finances, the Golden Visa and tax benefits for non-habitual residents must be maintained, and if access is processed in a faster and more transparent way, we may be able to face the uncertainty that may come in the future.

Relieving the huge tax burden for companies by the Government would be a priority measure. It would benefit investment, create jobs and more distributed wealth, which would generate a stronger and more dynamic economy, capable of facing future crises such as the one we have been experiencing.

In a recent interview with Pontos de Vista Magazine, David Poston, Portugal Homes’ founder and CEO stated that:

• “With an initial spend of over 600k per family when you include taxes and fees it is vital to keep the Golden Visa program running, one of the requirements of taking part in the GV is the investor needs to keep the property for the duration they are in the program, they also need to continue to visit Portugal during every renewal giving more income to the tourism industry. These investors are High net worth individuals with the capacity to invest further in the future once they get to know Portugal, their average spend when here is much higher than that of Europeans bringing a much-needed boost to the economy, with some difficult times ahead the Billions of euros the Golden Visa generates is vital for the economy, It’s important that the government not only keep it in place for the foreseeable future but they decide not to restrict investment into Lisbon at this moment.”

Read more on these subjects:

• Government discusses changes to the Portuguese Golden Visa Programme;
• Portugal Golden Visa Programme;
• Non-Habitual Resident Programme;
• Retiring in Portugal;
• David Poston’s full interview to Pontos de Vista Magazine;