Typical % Reduction for a House Offer in Portugal?

Excellent question, we will also be joining you in Madeira this year so have interest in the answers...

the housing market in Portugal is still hot. There was an article in last week's Portugal newspaper (in English)        

THEPORTUGALNEWS.COM "https://www.theportugalnews.com/news/search?lang=en&SF[keywords]=poirtugal+news"

The Portugal News - Search 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.

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.