Straight answers.
Practical advice and real jobs from buying, surveying and renovating in Porto and across Portugal — the questions clients actually ask.
Damp in granite and stone houses: gutters and drainage first, then lime
Why old granite houses get damp, the order to fix it in, and what it costs: gutters and drains, a drying season, then cement out and lime in. Real figures from our inspection reports.
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What the estate agent won’t tell you: documents, due diligence and who’s on your side
The agent is paid by the seller. The documents to ask for, what listings tend to leave out, and the two people you want working for you before you sign.
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Red flags at a house viewing in Portugal: what a builder notices first
The things that make me slow down at a viewing: fresh paint in odd places, dehumidifiers, new tiles on old terraces, and the roof space nobody can open.
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Cracks in a Portuguese house: which ones matter, and when you need an engineer
Most cracks are cosmetic. These are the ones I look at harder, how monitoring actually works, and when a structural engineer needs to see it before you buy.
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Buying a house to renovate in Portugal: the costs that don’t make it into the budget
The price per m² is the easy bit. Scaffold, the roof, the services, IVA, the time it takes, and the 15–20% you’ll need for what turns up once it’s opened.
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What a property in Portugal costs to run each year
IMI, condominium fees and reserve funds, insurance, and the maintenance budget for roofs, gutters, facades and terraces that most buyers forget.
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Do you need a licence to renovate in Portugal?
What’s exempt since the 2024 Simplex, what still needs a comunicação prévia or a licence, and the heritage-zone and condominium rules that catch people out.
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What a new roof costs in Portugal: real prices from our 2026 reports
Real re-roof prices from this year’s reports, from a small terraced house to a 1883 manor, with the per-m² build-up and when patching costs more in the end.
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Asbestos fibre-cement roofs in Portugal: the rules and what removal costs
Fibre-cement roofs put up before 2005 should be treated as asbestos. The removal rules, and what removal and a new roof actually cost on the jobs we priced.
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Badly renovated houses: what we find behind the new finishes
A recently renovated house in Porto that looked finished and wasn’t: failed capoto, no ventilation, no fire separation in the roof. €60,000–110,000 to put right.
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Mould in renovated homes: why it happens and what ventilation costs
Renovated, sealed up, no extraction, mould by the second winter. The pattern we see most, and what extract fans, heat-recovery units and MVHR actually cost.
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Rewiring a house in Portugal: what it costs and when a new board is enough
A new board with RCD protection, a full apartment rewire, a house, a stone farmhouse: what each cost on this year’s jobs, and how to tell which one you need.
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Buying a top-floor flat: the shared roof, permilagem and special levies
The roof is shared, the leaks reach your ceiling first and the bill comes by permilagem. How the maths works, what to ask the condominium, and real numbers from our reports.
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Buying in Portugal after 1 October 2026: what DL 108/2026 changes
The new decree on licensing came into force on 1 October. The deed now has to say whether the building has its título. Nobody checks whether the building matches it, and that part is still yours.
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What to check before you sign the CPCV
The CPCV is where the deposit goes down and your room to walk away shrinks. What to check on the building and the paperwork first, and how to make the contract conditional on an inspection.
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New-build defects in Portugal: how the 10-year and 5-year warranty works
Structural defects are covered for 10 years and the rest for 5. How the clock works, how to report a defect so it counts, and what to do when the developer stops answering.
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What a builder's quote leaves out, and how to check it before you sign
A quote can be neatly priced per square metre and still leave out work you will end up paying for. The usual gaps, the payment terms to watch, and how our Quote Check works.
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Earthquake risk when you buy in Lisbon or the Algarve
Lisbon and the Algarve sit in the highest seismic zones on the mainland. What older buildings are made of, what weakens them, and the 2019 rules that can force a seismic assessment when you renovate.
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What we actually find when we inspect a house for sale in Portugal
Real findings from this year’s inspections, with the photos from the reports and the repair cost ranges we gave the buyers. Roofs, damp, asbestos, bathrooms and electrics.
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The flat was fine. The building had €456 in the bank.
A properly renovated flat we told our client to buy, in a building with almost nothing in reserve. Why the condominium minutes can matter more than the flat, and what to get before the CPCV.
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Managing a build in Portugal when you live abroad
What goes wrong on a job when the owner is a flight away, why the builder can’t sign off his own work, and what someone on site working only for you actually does, week to week.
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Building a new house in Portugal: the process and how long it really takes
Two to three years from plot to keys, and most of the first year is paperwork. The land checks, the PIP, architect and engineers, licensing after the 2024 reforms, tender and build, and where it usually stalls.
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The stone house that was half built when we arrived
A granite house on a quinta in the Serra da Estrela foothills, eighteen months into a self-managed rebuild and stalled at the slab. Pricing the rest honestly, phasing out a wing to make it affordable, finding a local builder and keeping the contract in the owners’ name.
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Before they bought a 25-room manor house
A foreign investor group, a 750 m² manor house in the Algarve and a hotel plan. What an independent project manager does before the purchase — condition, three costed scenarios, the heritage zone, the AL cap, the 6% IVA question — and why we’re now running the build.
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When your builder disappears mid-renovation in Portugal
The replies get shorter, then they stop, then nobody turns up. What actually happens when a contractor walks off a job here — the payments, the licence, the half-built work going backwards — what to do in the first week, and how an unfinished renovation gets finished.
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Why roofs in Portugal cost what they cost
The one element every buyer skips and every budget underestimates. What is actually up there on a Porto building, why a partial repair is often the expensive option, and the difference between a roof that needs a few tiles and a roof that needs a structure.
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How long it really takes to get a builder in Portugal
Clients ring in March wanting to be finished by July. Allow three to six months for quoting and getting in the queue, or you end up hiring whoever happens to be free — and there is usually a reason they are free.
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Buying a quinta in Portugal: what the agent won't tell you
Title disputes, boundaries described by men who died in the 1970s, ruins that can't legally be rebuilt, vineyards that are a licence rather than a field, and what BUPi georeferencing costs now the free period has ended.
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New-build handover in Portugal: what actually happens at escritura
A builder's version of the last six weeks of a new-build purchase — the walk-through, the auto de receção, the escritura, and the one window where you hold all the leverage. Do the checking on the right side of that date.
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Auto de receção: what you're actually signing at a new-build handover
The most important document at a Portuguese new-build handover — and most buyers sign it in twenty minutes. What it commits you to, the three rules, and the phrase "com reservas" that does the work.
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Snagging a new apartment in Portugal: a builder's guide
How to snag a new-build apartment properly: what to test in walk order, the defects that cluster in new builds here, and what a thermal camera finds that eyes can't. Do it yourself, or bring someone in.
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Two surveys, opposite answers: when we said buy, and when we said walk
Same builder, same week, opposite advice. The renovated house we told a nervous buyer to buy (and how the snag list took more off the price than the survey cost), and the beautiful apartment we told them to walk away from — because nobody had looked at the roof.
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Why Portuguese houses are so cold and damp in winter — and what actually fixes it
Freezing in January, windows streaming, black mould in the corners. It's not that the house is bad — it's how it was built and renovated. Why the usual fixes fail, and what actually works: insulation, glazing, ventilation and heating, in the right order.
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What it costs to renovate in Portugal — and how to manage the job
Real 2026 renovation costs from a builder who prices this work — ballpark figures per square metre, the variables that move them, the 6% IVA rule that catches foreign buyers out, and how to manage the job when you can't be on site or in the language.
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What Portugal's 2024 building law changes mean for buyers
The Simplex Urbanístico reform sped up permits — and quietly moved risk onto you. Why unapproved work and a Caderneta that doesn't match the building is now the buyer's problem to catch.
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Why three builder quotes are never comparable
Everyone tells you to get three quotes. Nobody tells you they won’t be comparable — because nobody told the builders exactly what to price. Why the cheapest quote is usually the emptiest, and how a proper tender package fixes it.
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How to pay a builder without paying ahead of the work
The most common way foreign owners lose money on a Portuguese build isn’t fraud — it’s paying for work that hasn’t been done. Stage payments tied to inspected work, retentions, deposits, and what belongs in the contract.
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Building surveys & home inspections in Portugal: why you need one, and what it costs
Survey or home inspection — same job, different word. No seller disclosure, an agent who works for the seller, expensive defects behind fresh paint. What an independent survey covers, when to do it, and what it costs (from €490 + IVA, report in 24–48h).
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How to choose a builder in Portugal (and the traps to avoid)
No certification behind the logo, awards you can effectively buy, reviews you can't trust, several websites routing to one operator, deposits to firms that vanish. Who you're really hiring — and the ten-minute checks that protect you.
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The defects we find — old buildings and new
The same problems come up time after time, usually behind fresh paint — damp, end-of-life roofs, parapet leaks, hidden rot, tired electrics — plus the shortcuts hidden in brand-new builds. How to tell a cosmetic issue from an expensive one.
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Where the water actually comes from: damp in Porto, explained
Groundwater and the water table, rising damp, the roof leak that surfaces a floor below, condensation — the four places water gets in, and why finding the source beats any treatment. A builder's guide.
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