Yesterday Lisbon was considered a touristic destination able to beat Barcelona within the next 2 years by a leader of a major Low Cost Airline while visiting the country for contract signing. Major low cost airlines are uniting efforts to improve the amount of passengers they bring to Portugal in order to take advantages of huge discounts on airport taxes. The amount of visitors that landed in the city exceeds 15 million passengers per year. This equals to 1.5 times the Portuguese population and explains why the economy is surrounded by tourism industry all around the country.
With Portugal Investors Program, golden visa ( temporary residence permit for investors ) bringing a lot of Real Estate Investors into the country, the effect is awaking other investors non related to visa deal to come back to Portugal for Real Estate Investments. With Financial crisis still in place, Banks are unable to lend money for developers com back to their jobs and start building new properties, leaving the market without enough supply for the amount of demand that is arriving every day.
Some Real Estate companies are still not that optimistic because the product they are bringing to market are not attractive for foreign investors and on this I am considering badly located properties, low quality construction properties, old properties not in conditions of usage or properties which have no perspectives of generating income.
Investors are being very rational when approaching Portugal Real Estate market, they are not coming here to fall in love for properties which they might identify themselves with, they mostly choose properties where the foresee price increase within next years and at same time have a good rental income.
For properties which fall into this category the supply is getting less and less every day and I do not foresee any changes on this situation for the next 3-4 years since in order to build a new development might take at least 2 years to complete everything.
The message is clear to those investors out there if you have any intentions of investing in Real Estate in Portugal as soon as you land in Lisbon to choose your property as faster you make money. Prices are starting to rise and we will see and uncontrolled prices going up within the next 2 years, please be prepared to make money while enjoying your Residence Permit Card without living in Portugal and wining the ability to live in any Schengen Country at your wish.
