Portuguese property powers agent expansion
Improving conditions in Portugal's property market are powering growth among its estate agents, as confidence reaches a record high.
Sotheby's International Realty enjoyed their best ever year in 2014, the company has announced. The firm saw turnover leap 48 per cent year-on-year to a total of 185 million euros; a dramatic turnaround from the struggling market of 2012, when the agency recorded a turnover of just 38.5 million euros.
Gustavo Soares, Managing Director, told Economic.sapo.pt that it was the best result since 2007, when they settled in the country. Portugal has enjoyed a similarly strong performance on TheMoveChannel.com, with enquiries for property surging in the second half of 2014 and the beginning of 2015, as overseas buyers are drawn by the stabilising prices - and, in some cases, the popular Golden Visa scheme.
Sotheby's says two thirds of its sales last year went to foreigners, although "most customers do not need incentives such as Golden Visas". (The agency has approximately a 20 to 25 per cent share of the luxury market.)
The firm says that French, Brazilian and English buyers are driving activity, while the biggest spenders are those from China and Angola.
The reports arrive on the back of ever-improving figures from the RICS/Ci market report, which found that even Porto experienced a slight pick-up in prices for the first time in the survey’s four year history during February 2015. The index's confidence rating is also at a new record high.
Indeed, Sotheby's is not the only agency enjoying a strong rebound: Fine & Country opened a new office in Comporta (pictured above), just south of Lisbon, this month. This is the company's sixth office in the country and its third that it has opened in the last 12 months, alongside Chiado and Estoril.
The showroom is located at the heart of Portugal's Blue Coast (Costa Azul), which is almost exclusively devoted to weekend homes for the domestic Portuguese market and holiday homes for the international market. The properties in the Blue Coast vary from modern fully furnished apartments on the Troia Peninsula for as little as 350,000€ through to luxury sea view villas for up to 1,500,000€.
The agency says it is becoming the destination of choice for English, French and Portuguese buyers looking for a holiday property with a real Portuguese flavour and prices that cannot be beaten in other resort areas of Portugal.
Owners of the business, Charles Roberts and Nuno Durão launched the Comporta office following a very successful two years for Fine & Country Portugal.
"Prices in Portugal dropped by up to 30 per cent with the economic crisis. We have now reached a platform whereby prices have stabilized," comments Nuno. "There is no increase in prices but there is much more confidence in the market and for the first time in over 5 years we are seeing the international market returning to Portugal."
The outlook is positive for 2015 too, adds Sotheby's, with sales already rising 40 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2015. Sotheby's has since opened a new office in Porto and will soon open another in Lisbon and Carveoiro.