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Portugal Property: What Everybody Ought to Know About Estate Agents in Portugal

Date: 17/9/2008

So for this article I’ve decided to focus on Portugal and write what everybody ought to know about estate agents in Portugal because there is plenty to learn, plenty to be aware of and a great deal to understand and have in mind even before you even make contact with your first Portuguese estate agent if you are to ensure that you avoid the sharks and the scams and get the right property at the right price depending on your own personal requirements.

The first news is good news – the seller of a property has to pay the estate agent’s fees!  While this is the same as in the UK it is not the same in all countries in the world…but fortunately, if you’re thinking of buying property in Portugal you will not have to pay out for the services of an estate agent which should make you more likely to use their services.

All estate agents make commission on whatever it is they sell to you – this is the very first fact that you need to accept because from here on in you will know that yes, it is in your agent’s best interests for you to buy and for you to stretch your budget to the max.  With this in mind you can accept their help and recommendations but you can also walk away and mull things over in your own time and on your own terms. 

I have a friend who’s a property investor and who feels guilty about the most ridiculous things - one of the things she feels most guilty about is letting an agent down (i.e., not buying from them) when she’s on the hunt for a new property asset – for goodness sake don’t be like her!  Only you will truly know if a property is right for you and so do not be swayed by what anyone else says or thinks – especially someone who has a vested financial interest in changing your mind!

In Portugal you will be pleased to know that estate agents have to be licensed by the government before they can begin trading and they have to have what’s called an AMI number – ask to see this from all agents you speak to.  Licensed Portuguese estate agents are known locally as mediador autorizado (authorised mediator) and the vast majority are also members of the main professional estate agents’ body called Profissionais das Empresas de Mediacao Imobiliaria de Portugal.

It’s highly likely that the very first agents you make contact with will be via the internet – but to get to the top of the search engines either as an organic or paid listing takes a lot of skill for the former and a lot of money for the latter in a market as competitive as Portugal’s…what this means is that you will only find a few of all the agents out there and those you do find may not represent as broad a mix of the market as possible.

My advice to you would be to do plenty of research online about the area around which you want to buy property, look on forums where other expatriates and buyers are to be found who know about the area of Portugal you’re interested in, collate as many facts about what to watch out for when buying property in Portugal and then, and only then, contact some of the estate agents you find listed who have properties that appear from the listings to meet your criteria.

You can request further details of suitable properties specifying your absolute maximum budget and minimum criteria for a home and even set up a few appointments for when you arrive on your next visit to Portugal…but reserve plenty of time when you’re in Portugal for the leg work.  I.e., set aside days when you have no estate agent appointments so you can travel round under your own steam and see which other agents have a local presence, which properties you can find advertised for sale that you think look attractive and then you can make a few more appointments based on what you see locally.

There is no right way or wrong way to hunt for a property abroad.  Some people go on an inspection trip, fall in love with and sign for the very first house they see – other people can take many years to-ing and fro-ing before they find their dream home.  For the rest of us it’s a case of something in between….we see quite a few houses, pick a couple that suit and then mull it over for some time before committing to purchase, and as long as we make our decisions based on facts and not conjecture, assumptions of speculation we’ll probably do alright!

If you get to the point that you want to buy a given property through a particular agent then you can make an official offer to buy at a given price and while that is being considered you can have structural survey done to ensure the property is all you think it should be.  Many agents will tell you that such a survey is unnecessary but really, if you’re buying a resale you need to get it checked out as structural issues don’t always present themselves obviously.

Finally, in terms of the scams and shark tricks that estate agents can pull in Portugal they are much the same as anywhere else.  For example an estate agent may offer to take and hold onto your deposit while contracts are drawn up and the legal process takes its natural course – they then either leg it with the cash if they are a fly by night or happily sit on the cash, keeping it warm in their own bank account and earning interest on it for just a little while longer than they should.  Alternatively, some local agents have been known to see foreign buyers as nothing more than rich pickings and quickly inflate the price of a given property over and above what the vendor is asking for it, ensuring they then pocket the difference for their troubles if it is sold!

If you do your due diligence on an estate agent, ensure they are licensed, engage the services of a broad range of agents to offset the risk of being caught by the shark and really, keep your head when all around you foreign buyers are losing theirs, you should encounter no difficulties whatsoever and find the whole property purchase transaction is smooth and pain free – well, as pain free as parting with thousands of pounds worth of hard earned cash can ever be – but you know what I mean. Source: Shelteroffshore

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