The types of properties in Portugal

Do you want old and beautiful or cool and modern? Town or country? Detached or semi-detached?

Portugal is an old country, but one that has embraced all things modern, and that comes to properties too. So international buyers have a wide choice of types of houses in Portugal for their forever or their holiday home, from old stone cottages to the coolest villas and apartments.

Is it time to go a bit crazy, or stick with what you know and love?

Decision time: Your property checklist

When thinking about the type of property to purchase, it’s helpful to sit down and come up with a specification, narrowing down your choices. (You can always change your mind if you don’t find what you want). Below, we’ve come up with a quickfire list of questions to get you started.

Size and style

• What type of property do you see yourself living in?
• How many rooms? Can you put that in square metres? Will you need space for guests?
• What’s more important – indoor or outdoor space?
• Are you happy to handle repairs or renovations?

Features and other needs

• What are your must-have features? A terrace? Parking? Private pool?
• Do your finances require you to rent the property out?
• Location-wise, what are your priorities? Close to shops? Quiet? A view?
• Is there any other feature you need to get your dream property?
• Who do you want as your neighbours: tourists, expats or a settled community?

Budget

• Could you get the same lifestyle but “more house” somewhere cheaper?
• Do you need to adjust your requirements to fit within your budget?

Next, we’ll outline the choices of property in Portugal.

Descriptions of Portuguese homes

When you’re browsing Portuguese property listings, you may notice properties – particularly apartments – described as T0/T1/T2 and so on.

This simply refers to the number of bedrooms. A T0 is a studio with no separate bedroom. A T1 is one bedroom, and so on.

Something else you might see is T2+1, T3+1 etc. This indicates that there’s an additional small room – think dressing room or box room – which may or may not be big enough to serve as an additional bedroom, but might be useful as an office to work from home in Portugal?

You may also see both the bedroom numbers and the square metres, which makes choosing a property so much easier. For example, a T2, 100m2 would be a spacious two-bedroom while a T4+1, 80m2 might be a slightly cramped house.

H2 The main types of property in Portugal

Quinta

A quinta is a country estate. It can be an individual property in the countryside, or a larger resort, such as Quinta do Lago, which may no longer be so isolated.

Villa

A white-washed villa is what many people aspire to for their new life in Portugal. Although older villas are available, Portugal has some wonderful architects and planners are happy to allow exciting designs, so why not get your own gleaming grand design? A villa will usually come with a private pool and garden.

If a sunshine villa ticks your boxes and you have a larger budget, browse properties in Cascais, Faro, Vilamoura and along the Algarve coast. However, if you wish to be closer to have the benefits of a designer villa for less consider looking inland or in northern Portugal, such as around Braga.

Townhouse

Of all the types of property in Portugal, a townhouse could be your top pick if you’re looking for something close to the action.

You’ll usually find these homes provide you with lots of room and this generally includes roof terraces and balconies. However, townhouses typically offer you less privacy than a villa. They are generally found in semi-detached (casa germinada) or terraced format. But don’t think of old-fashioned terraced properties – these can be modern and in the heart of a resort, maybe with a garden or terrace overlooking the resort’s pool or the golf fairway. They cost less than a villa and can give you more of a community feel.

Found across Portugal, the nicest townhouses in the country are on the outskirts of popular cities, such as Faro, Lisbon, Porto and Tavira.

Apartment

Apartment living is popular in Portugal, especially in cities. They come in all shapes and sizes, old and new. Some are simply the apartment while some new developments may come with shared areas, including lounges and cafes, maybe even a gym, pool and roof garden. You will certainly see that in cities like apartments in Porto and Lisbon, which are encouraging digital nomads.

On the other hand there are plenty of historic apartment buildings too, with the Português Suave style particularly popular.

Resort property

Resort property offers a host of serviced facilities in addition to shared access to a pool and garden. There is a broad spectrum of resort properties available in Portugal, from a villa in one of the prestigious golfing resorts to a studio apartment on an all-inclusive complex.

Buying a resort property may mean living with tourists for half of the year (and almost no-one the other half), so consider this before buying for a relocation. Maybe that will be perfect if buying on a golf resort! On the other hand, if buying for renting out, check this is allowed.

Country home

Rustic properties (casa rurales) could mean a cottage or a sprawling quinta in the hills. Such homes often appeal to international buyers who fancy living in “the real Portugal” and are not fazed by learning Portuguese. There are properties to renovate in countryside, homes with plenty of land to create a smallholding, or just escape the rat race. Prices can be extremely affordable when you get out to the country areas beyond Coimbra and provinces such as Viseu.

For renovation projects, be careful to have your plans checked over by a specialist lawyer and a surveyor. The Royal Institution for Chartered Surveyors (RICS) operates in Portugal, and this can be a good place to start.