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Hi All,
Where we come from (Canada), when making an offer on a house, you can normally offer 10-15% less than the listing price.
We are now looking at purchasing a house here in Portugal (Madeira), and we are curious as to what a typical % reduction would be? And I am guessing that % may be a bit higher in a COVID world?
We realize there are many factors involved...any advice or speculation is welcome.
Cheers,
Nathalie & Greg
Excellent question, we will also be joining you in Madeira this year so have interest in the answers...
@brittan I have been thinking of looking into Maderia
I am curious as to why you have chosen the Island as opposed to the Mainland
Also, what is the weather like on Maderia?
As an American, I am thinking the weather is humid and similar to the Caribbean in North America.
I would love to hear your perspective since I would love to include this during my scouting trip
Sara
@sarar Madeira is beautiful with multiple microclimates. The North in Porto Moniz you will find the beautiful heather forests and it is colder. South and southeast to Funchal, Santa Cruz and Machico are hotter. The lavada system of water is brilliant. There can be flooding waters sometimes with the rains. It is not as humid as the southeastern US at all. Winston Churchill used to go to Camara de Lobos to paint. The airport has the 4th (I think) most dangerous runway in the world to land on. I think only certain pilots are allowed to fly there. It you want to travel to other countries you have to factor in the added expense of flying from an island to other locations. It is beautiful.
@sarar Madeira was at the top of my list before I visited a week ago. It has so much going for it, but I must say I would now hesitate to move to Madeira. The primary reason is the roads, and driving on them. It is very intense. To get to many of the Levada hikes you end up driving in roads that are narrow and steep with many blind corners. One road I drove on had a 20% grade for a stretch of around 400 meters. It is fairly insane.
the housing market in Portugal is still hot. There was an article in last week's Portugal newspaper (in English) https://www.theportugalnews.com/news/search?lang=en&SF%5Bkeywords%5D=poirtugal+news
When we bought our second home in October 2019 we offered 10% less and it was accepted but we knew the seller's circumstances and he was eager to sell. If you make a lower offer, the worst that can happen is the seller says "no" or comes back with a counter offer. The only glitch in the system would be if there are other seriously interested buyers.
@peggyL
I have been closely watching the house market for two years and there are reasons for house prices dropping mainly due to CV-19. A lot of Villa owners rent their properties in the high season for substantial figures, due to the lack of tourism this as not happened. A lot of the large villa owners are now down sizing to small places. If you look on the Pt house markets you will see reduced prices, and some by large amounts. Pt is going through a serious financial crisis.and with a lack of tourism this as put pressure on villa owners who still have to pay for costs all the year round. This mainly applies to high tourist area's The multi-million house will not be effected but the 300 to 700 thousand euro properties have seen a definite reduction. However this will be short term and when things get back to normal Prices will bounce back.
@omena If think it depends which side of the fence you are on, buyer/seller.
The answer is to be there in PT, find a place and negotiate If you cannot agree, move on, there are thousands of property for sale in PT. If its want you want pay the price, at the end of day it's your money.
As a general rule, in Portugal, offers are not "a thing"...
We've done a lot of serious pre-buying, and have bought 4 times in Portugal. All were Portuguese sellers:
1 - apartment in Lisbon suburb, high demand, reasonable price, seller moved by 1.5%;
2 - ruin in rural central Portugal, no demand (in this specific area), reasonable price, seller moved by 9%;
3 - house in Santarém, moderate demand, relatively top end price for what it was, zero movement, and mild offence at the suggestion;
4 - uninhabitable apartment without habitation license, over the top asking price, zero movement, became very difficult at the suggestion of an offer.
When we have sold, again always to Portuguese people, we've been offered the asking price without offers.
In discussion with many agents, in conjunction with our experience, I would say that you should not assume that a Portuguese seller will reduce by much if anything, and they may not understand or even be mildly offended. If you're buying from non-Portuguese people, or in areas where non-Portuguese buyers are common, you may have more success.
Naturally, a good agent would have some insight into the likelihood of an offer being accepted.
By the way, some of the hassles can related to inheritance properties, where several relatives share the inheritance, and disagree with the price, or even with the sale... This is rarely a "thing" in Canada, the UK, etc.
Thomas
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@thomasandmatthew this has been our experience also. The first time we bought a rural house near Tomar and got about 1-2% reduction. when we bought our apartment in Alcobaça it's price had just been reduced and it was made clear to us that it was asking price or nothing. When we sold the rural house (to an English person), it was for sale for 3 years and we took a reduction of about 5%.
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