For buyers
Know what you're buying — before you sign.
Buying property in Portugal as a foreigner is one of the largest purchases of your life, made in a market you don't fully know, in a language you may not fully read, against counterparties who do this every day. SirJohn pulls the data you'd get if you lived here and understood the system.
What you're up against.
The three things foreign buyers most often underestimate — each with the data that proves it matters.
Foreign-buyer premium
+54–64%
You're likely paying more than a local would.
In Lisbon and Porto, foreign buyers routinely pay 54–64% above local-buyer prices for comparable properties. Non-EU buyers pay roughly 2x. You're negotiating without the comparables locals see.
Source: Bank of Portugal · Bloomberg · idealista 2025
Simplex law
Jan 2024
Legality is now your problem, not the seller's.
Since the Simplex reform, a habitation licence is no longer required at sale. Illegal extensions, unpermitted pools, additions not on the Caderneta — the demolition-order risk transfers with the title. You verify, or you inherit the problem.
Source: Portuguese Civil Code · 2024 reform
Sinal deposit
10–20%
There's no escrow. Your deposit goes to the seller directly.
Portuguese CPCV contracts require a 10–20% sinal deposit paid directly to the seller, not held in escrow. Mistranslated clauses, missing mortgage-contingency language, and hidden debts that transfer with title are common pitfalls for foreign buyers.
Source: CPCV standard practice · Ordem dos Notários
What SirJohn gives you.
Three things a local buyer would quietly check — automated, sourced, and delivered in the time it takes to read the listing.
An independent fair-price estimate
SirJohn analyses every listing against a statistical model trained on Portugal's real market — 97 features, parish-level comparables, block-level signals. You see what the property should cost, not just what the agent is asking.
A due-diligence layer the agent won't give you
We cross-check the Caderneta Predial against the Land Registry, flag Simplex legality risks, surface outstanding mortgages and tax arrears, and estimate monthly heating cost for the energy rating. Things a local would quietly check before signing.
Plain English. No jargon.
Portuguese property vocabulary is opaque even to lawyers. We explain the verdict, the risks, and the numbers in language you can act on — and we tell you when we don't know something, instead of guessing.
What an answer actually looks like.
A real audit on a Lordelo do Ouro 2-bed apartment. Pricing, risk checks, and the reasoning behind the verdict — live, not a mock-up.
Asking vs Fair Value
-11.0%
Asking Price
320 000 €
Fair Value
360 000 €
3765 € / m²
Asking price sits 11% below the parish median for T2 apartments in Lordelo do Ouro. The property benefits from proximity to the Douro waterfront and Foz do Douro, yet avoids the premium of the riverfront strip. Strong rental demand from university and hospital workers nearby.
- Helps:
Price vs fair value
Priced below what the local market supports — the core reason for the verdict.
-11.0%vs SirJohn fair value - Helps:
Location
Lordelo do Ouro — established, walkable neighbourhood with everyday amenities close by.
Prime parishsupermarket ~3 min - Holds back:
Energy certificate
Lower rating — budget for insulation and expect higher running costs.
Cert C≈ €1,900/yr running cost - Helps:
Risk profile
No material environmental or legal risks flagged for this property.
- Helps:
Rental outlook
Healthy rental yield if you let it out rather than living in it.
5.6% grosslong-let estimate
Price Analysis
Fair value estimate
360 000 €
Asking price
320 000 €
-11.1%below fair valuePrice per m²
3765 €
Parish average
4230 €
How we estimated this
Hedonic regression with 47 comparables (CMA + INE parish median)
Risk Assessment
Guides for buyers.
The risks and rules worth understanding before you sign — each one a check a local buyer would quietly run, explained plainly with the data behind it.
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Rules
Alojamento Local (AL) licences
Before you value a flat on rental income, find out whether it can legally earn it — parish by parish, and whether an existing AL even transfers with the sale.
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Risks
Seismic risk
The hazard-zone map is the wrong thing to read first. The build year — the 1958 and 1983 code thresholds — tells you far more about what you're actually buying.
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Risks
Radon
A real risk in the granite north and in ground-floor homes — and close to irrelevant for an upper-floor city flat. Know which one you're buying.
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Risks
Coastal erosion
That ocean view can sit inside a POOC setback line. Learn the Atlantic hotspots and Algarve cliff rules before you pay the sea-view premium.
What we don't claim to do.
A tool that pretends to answer every question is less useful than one that's honest about its edges.
- We're not a lawyer. Contracts still need a Portuguese notary or solicitor for the legal review.
- Our model has a median error around 10% — useful as a check, not a quote.
- Some data (condo debt, pending AGM levies) sits with individual administrators and isn't always available. We say so when that's the case.
Spend five minutes before you spend €500,000.
Paste a listing URL or enter the details — we'll tell you what we'd want to know if we were buying it.