My Process of Buying Land in Portugal

That’s it! It’s done! As of last week, I’m officially a land owner! My experience buying land in Portugal has been amazing smooth, but in the back of my mind I’m sort of waiting for something unforeseen and terrible to happen since I’ve heard plenty of horror stories about people buying land and then everything going sideways. But I’ve taken the advice of practically everyone I’ve met and I’ve chosen to employ a lawyer so, in theory, she should be on top of everything. Right? Well it seems so because the deed was done last week, money paid, and I guess I now own land!

It’s been about four years since I decided that I wanted to buy land in Portugal after switching my focus from France for no apparent reason. This is the process I went through that led me to finally sealing the deal last week on a sweet little piece of land. It took awhile from start to finish, but I got there and it didn’t actually take much effort on my part!

Deciding on Portugal

I’d lived in Rwanda for around seven years when I decided that I wanted to try somewhere new. I love Rwanda but I felt like I wanted a piece of rural land somewhere in Europe, closer to my parents in Canada and in a place where I could grow old without fear of a dodgy healthcare system (no offense Rwanda, but you’ve got a long way to go on that front). France was my target country from the start… I don’t remember why, but the fact that I speak some French could have been a reason. Food could have been another. It’s easy to start research and get lost in it, and I guess I found myself adrift in information about moving to France and websites selling ruins there. Somewhere along the way I veered towards Portugal, and that was the end of the France idea for.

A major reason I lost interest in France was the discovery of the excellent Pure Portugal website. This easy to use, English-language website totally sucked me in and I found myself spending hours scrolling through the beautiful and affordable properties dotted all over the country. I then started to research more about Portugal in general and about Lisbon and Porto, and I was intrigued! I still hadn’t been to Portugal but I somehow decided then and there that it’s where I would be buying property and living far into the future. I just had an inexplicable feeling that it would be the spot for me.

Deciding on an Area

Back in 2016 I took a 10-day trip to Lisbon to have a little look around it out while working remotely. It was my first time to Portugal and, though Lisbon itself didn’t really pull me in, I felt like Portugal in general was going to be a nice fit so I planned a trip for the following year. At the time I wasn’t sure if I was a rural or city person so, in 2017 I headed to Porto for a month to hang out and work online from there, and then to Keela Yoga Farm to experience the rural life. I loved Porto but I loved Keela and the off-grid, sustainable lifestyle a lot more. I wasn’t sold on the area, but I was certain that the countryside was the place for me.

Some people are willing to live anywhere and will let the piece of land dictate their location, others figure out an area that works for them and then narrow their search based on that. I opted for the third option – visit nowhere else in Portugal due to laziness, let the area slowly work its way into my heart, and then decide that it’s the place for me. My land search wasn’t really an active search at all and I didn’t explore anywhere else in Portugal. I was a bit apprehensive about that but, I guess, when you know, you know. Plus I’ve spoken to plenty of people who’ve already spent months (and sometimes years) visiting land all around Portugal and have still ended up in this area, so that’s a good sign. My gut was telling me that this part of Central Portugal was the spot for me… and I listened!

Land Hunting

My land hunting efforts were pretty pitiful, I have to admit. I did a lot of surfing around online, but almost zero contacting of people. I only actually looked at three places total, two of which were shown to me informally by friends. The first plot was way out of my budget at €28,000 and didn’t really have a lot for that price. The second was only €6,000 and it was really only the price that appealed to me and the land itself probably wasn’t suitable. It’s quite easy to see the good parts about a piece of land, especially when you’re so eager to finally have a place of your own and start daydreaming about what life might be like there. I can see how people might get excited and rush into things and I almost found myself doing that with the second piece of land.

The third piece of land I saw is the one I bought, and it was sort of a surprise. I’d only just decided that I was going to return to studying in 2021 and spend some of my savings on that, so buying land was put on the back-burner, yet again. But I wandered onto Pure Portugal one evening in June when I was bored and I found what looked like a lovely spot. At €14,500 it was in my budget and I loved the small size of around half an acre. I also liked that it had fruit and olive trees and a small stone barn with a roof already on it. The only downside was the location out near Mata da Rainha which, for me, would be a bit too isolated. But I decided to reach out anyway.

Contacting the Sellers

I sent my first email to the owners via Pure Portugal back in mid-June and they messaged me back straight away. They’re a British and Portuguese couple who live in the UK and they were incredibly responsive and helpful over email. I’d heard plenty of stories of sellers who were impossible to get a hold of and who never replied, so I took this as a very encouraging sign. I was also happy to see that they were able to communicate in English because, as of right now, my Portuguese is an abomination. The listing was with the owners directly so there was no need to also go through a third-party real estate company which was also a bonus. Communication has been incredibly quick and very pleasant throughout the entire process and they seem like nice people, which is always nice!

Visiting the Land

With the owners away in the UK they had a local guy called João managing their land, making sure it didn’t get so overgrown that it would become a fire hazard. He was also tasked with showing prospective buyers around but he could only show people on the weekends so, with the owner’s approval, I ended up visiting the land mid-week with a few friends and having a little wander around. It turns out that the land wasn’t out by Mata da Rainha, as advertised, but was instead in my perfect location close to a village and basically in the middle of where most of my friends here live. I visited several more times at different times of day both on my own and with friends to get their thoughts and I loved it more and more after each trip!

On one visit to the land in the afternoon, I learned that I can hear the train and church bells but luckily, I don’t mind either sound. There’s something soothing about a train noise a few times per day and the church bells will make sure that I’ll always know the time – I mean, how valuable is that? And if I ever find God (one never knows), I won’t be far away.

Bugging Friends and Facebook

Nearly everyone I know here has already gone through the process of buying land in Portugal and so I became that annoying person asking friends about their land classification and paperwork, lawyer recommendations, the process, what they did, sticking points, advice, warnings, thoughts, hopes, dreams… all of the things! I also asked a lot of questions on Facebook early on, but the people in the Portugal-related groups can sometimes be quite irritating and troll-y, so I usually only ask online if I can’t find an answer through the people I know. Fortunately, my friends are happy to help and I’ve gleaned a lot of great advice over these past few months!

Proclaiming Interest and Asking More Questions

Once I was reasonably sure I was interested in the land, I let the sellers know that I was seriously considering the place and then I peppered them with approximately a zillion more questions. This would normally be the stage where I’d have a look inside the structure and confirm the borders of the land, but as the owners (and the key to the structure) were in the UK I had to arrange this with João. But in order to be able to see inside the structure, I basically had to sit tight while the keys zinged their way in the mail to João in Portugal. It was actually sort of good to have this forced pause so that I could take a moment to consider to myself whether this was a good idea or not and ask any more questions I had. Even after the pause I was undeterred so that was a good sign!

Paperwork

Knowing what’s possible building- and habitation-wise on a piece of land is key before making a purchase – at least if you don’t want any sad surprises later. People will tell you anything, especially sellers and agents. I’d been advised to get paperwork from the camera (town hall) so I went with a Portuguese friend who has bought and sold land in the past and who knows the whole process. It cost me €28 and the form took about 5 minutes to fill in. Due to Covid we had to go to the office, get the form and then take it away to a cafe fill it in. I also had to print off a Google map with the location of the land and then I drew the land’s borders onto the printout with a pen. It’s best to be fairly zoomed-in on Google maps and then to also provide GPS coordinates.

In order to get this paperwork from the camera, I had to take the ‘Certidao Permanente’ which was provided by the current owners. They sent over a crappy photo of it and that was fine. I don’t think we even showed it to the guy in the office, I think we just wrote some numbers on the paper. It took less than a week to get the document back which, I think, is called a ‘PDM’ which details the class of use for the land. According to my Portuguese friend who knows about such things, the news was good! The land is classified as ‘Agro-Silvo-Pastoril’ which apparently means that farm buildings are ok. It’s required to get a permit for any building work, but it’s common for people in this area to build small structures and at best, hope nobody notices and, at worse, illegal buildings would be torn down. The middle ground risk is that you have to pay a fine but the building can live on. Because there’s a ruin on the land I can renovate the inside without requiring a permit.

Find a Lawyer

I think it’s possible to go through the entire land-buying process yourself, but that’s how people end up getting screwed. The only consistent recommendation by everyone, everywhere, is to do things through a lawyer and hire someone that comes recommended. At this stage I emailed a women who many people in this area have used to buy land named Liliana Solipa. After sending a quick email I learned that her fee is a flat €500 and I got a bit more information about the process. She’s a woman of few words by email but she told me what information and forms I’d need to get from the sellers in order to get more information about the land and for a hassle-free sale. Her job is to look everything over and over oversee the signing of the deeds.

I was a bit confused about when to actually commit to the lawyer because I wasn’t yet sure if I wanted the land. In the end she was very generous with her time (by email) and I asked her a lot of questions before I committed to using her services and paying her. I wondered what happens if you use a lawyer, pay them to check on paperwork for the land you’re interested, and then discover that things aren’t in order or you’re no longer interested. So I waited until I was sure I wanted to go through with the sale and then paid her and things went forward from there.

Agree on the Price and Timeline

Once I was sure I wanted the land, myself and the sellers had to agree on a price. The sellers were asking for €14,500 but, on the advice of friends, I low-balled with an offer of €12,000. I was a bit scared that they’d scoff at my offer and spit in my face virtually at the idea but they countered with €14,000 and we settled on €13,750. I’m told that, unlike in many other countries, it’s not that common in Portugal to bargain much over the price. It’s a small discount but I’m pleased with it and I would even have paid the full price of €14,500 to it’s a little bonus. I guess it’s about finding that balance for how far you’re willing to push things. The sellers told me that they wouldn’t be making any profit at the price of €13,750 after paying Pure Portugal their €500 fee. They also said that they weren’t necessarily in any big rush to sell the land. So I had to weigh those things with my eagerness to get a deal done and I decided that a price of €13,750 was fair.

To someone in Canada (or most of the rest of the Western world, probably), that price would seem quite amazing for a half acre piece of land not far from a village with two water sources and a small stone structure but, here in Portugal, it might be considered expensive for such a small plot. You’ll see massive pieces of land all around the country for that price but, for me, I’d actually be willing to pay a premium for something smaller and walking distance to a village so I feel like it’s a steal, especially with a solid building on it. Regardless, something is worth whatever someone else is willing to pay and I am absolutely willing to pay that amount for my little piece of the world.

Look Inside the Building

Since the sellers live in the UK, they weren’t around to show me the land and inside the building, but they asked me to get in touch with João their land manager so he could show me. I had to wait a couple of weeks for the key to arrive in the mail and then I went back for a final look at the land and building, already sure I was interested but wanting to see what was inside those four stoney walls.

The building was as I expected, matching up perfectly with the photos on the website listing with a concrete floor, clay-mortared rock walls, and a new tile roof with concrete rafters. I was actually a but bummed to see the concrete floor and rafters because I don’t really know how to work with them. I have no idea what’s happening in the ceiling where the red blocks are and I’d have much rather put in a floor that’s not concrete but, since both things are finished, I’ll stick with them for now, at least. The building is basically built like a tank and I was really happy with how solid it felt. Creepy and crypt-like due to the lack of windows… but solid. A solid crypt.

Figure Out the Land’s Actual Borders

I also wanted to meet with João to get a clearer picture of the land’s borders. Since the sellers first sent me a map of the land, there has been a discrepancy on what they said the borders were and the size they claimed the land to be. The land was advertised as 1,800 m2 but when I measured it using my nerdy mapping software, it came out closer to 1,550 m2. Worse, when João showed me around the land, he said that the borders didn’t include a fifth terrace that was on the map and when I measured these borders, the size dropped to 1,350 m2 which is about 25% less that what was advertised. I’m actually totally fine with the smaller borders as João showed me, but it’s a big difference and the confusion was a bit concerning.

I was under the impression that the town hall or some other office would have a master map of all of the land plots in their jurisdiction. Ah, how foolish I was! Some regions of Portugal have these master maps but, alas, Fundao is not one of those regions. The only way to truly know the borders is to have a topographic survey done buy the owners of the land. Since I already knew I wanted to buy the land and was ok with the smaller size, I decided not to push this. The lawyer was able to verify the rough borders based on the neighbouring lands, and that was good enough for me. I plan to have a topographic survey done sometime soon just to be 100% certain of the borders and I think it’s a good thing to have anyway, especially for when I start to put fences up.

Move Forward with the Lawyer and Paperwork

Once I’d looked inside the building, walked the land again, and settled on a price with the sellers I was ready to commit and I finally officially hired my lawyer. Up until this point she was very generous with her time and advice and I was happy to get her paid the €500 flat fee so we could move forward on the sale. Liliana was already in contact with both myself and the sellers and so she told us what documents we needed to send (in my case it was only a copy of my passport and my Portuguese tax number) and got the ball rolling on the paperwork side of things.

Draw Up a Preliminary Contract and Make a Deposit

At this stage I was keen to put a deposit down and have the real estate listing removed from the website. I would have gone through with the full sale straight away without delay, but the sellers were waiting on a new baby at any moment and weren’t able to come to Portugal until early September which, at this point, was about a month away. I wanted to get a deposit down and lock everything in so there wouldn’t be much of a chance of being disappointed later. In Portugal there’s a law where, if a deposit is made on a piece of land and the buyer pulls out, they lose their deposit. But if the seller pulls out then they have to pay the buyer back twice the value of the deposit. It’s a good way of knowing that both sides are serious and I was anxious to give them my money to more or less seal the deal.

Freak Out

At this point I just (mostly) bought land! It’s a scary thing for me… I’ve spent all of my adult life sort of flitting around between places, never really making too much of a commitment to anywhere. I was in London for five years and Rwanda for seven, but always with travels in between and one foot out the door. For me, this is a big and somewhat scary commitment, but it’s what I’ve been wanting for a long time so it’s that exciting kind of scary. Still… it’s a big life step, especially since Covid has ransacked my business and income, and I was feeling a bit more jittery than excited at this stage.

Get the Keys and Permission to Be on the Land

I made my deposit in mid-August but the owners weren’t planning on coming to Portugal to complete the sale until mid-September. I messaged to ask if I could go ahead and get the wells cleared out (because it has to be done before the rains start) and they told me that, as far as they were concerned, the land was already mine and I could do what I wished. They even offered to give me the key to the barn! So, without actually paying in full for the land yet, I had started working on it and storing things in the barn. It was a surprise so I wasn’t fully ready to get started, but I quickly made myself a very long ‘to do’ list and got to work… first task? Make a driveway!

The sellers have been a dream to deal with from the start and this was just the icing on the cake!

Signing of the Paperwork and Payment

I met up with my lawyer, the notary person, and the seller this past Thursday at the lawyer’s office in Castelo Branco to complete the deal. It involved signing the deed and paying taxes (€800), the land title transfer fee (€250), and the fee for the services of the notary (€370). The process took about an hour and my lawyer was good about reading through the entire contract and explaining everything, possibly going into a little too much detail, even. I’m not sure how the process goes without a lawyer, but I was happy to have her guidance through the whole process.

There was a bit of a possible snag at the last minute because the seller had a tax debt relating to a car he’d previously owned. In Portugal, apparently, if you have any outstanding debts at all, even for things totally unrelated to the property you’re selling, they won’t allow other official sales and things to go through until the debt is cleared. Seems like a very smart way to make sure people’s debts are paid but this is something that could have delayed things. The seller was aware of the debt but he’d been out of the country and only able to pay it when he returned but, with Covid on the rampage, office hours are fewer and it almost held up the whole sale. Fortunately the lawyer helped him get the payment made without needing an appointment and things were back on track… but I was nervous there for a moment.

Payment was a little trickier, but we got it done in the end. I’d gone into my bank earlier that day to get cash to pay all of the fees and to check with the bank about any online transfer limits to international accounts. They told me €10,000 was the maximum daily limit for online transfers, so I got the rest out in cash and figured I was sorted. Unfortunately the online transfer wouldn’t work for reasons that are still shrouded in mystery. In the end, we decided to go back to the bank to attempt the transfer in person but, weirdly, no international transfers can happen after 3pm through the bank. We tried again to do the transfer online with the bank guy on the phone for ages trying to figure out why it wouldn’t work. Eventually we decided to transfer to a Portuguese account instead of the UK one and it was magically possible to a limit still of €10,000 and I paid the rest in cash.

Freak Out Again

Another reason to freak out? What now? Now I’m finding myself reading a lot of articles with titles like 12 Things You Need to Go Off Grid Now and ??? and I’m digging out old, neglected permaculture books. I’ve really immersed myself in natural building for the past several years but I’ve forgotten all of the fun permaculture stuff so I’m excited to dive back into that world and plan, plan, plan!

Move In!

I’ve got a whole bunch of things I want to do before I move onto the land, though I wonder if I’m just making excuses! I signed for the place last week and I haven’t yet camped out on the land overnight. I’ve got it in my mind that I want to make the structure livable before I move to the land, and that’ll involve a bunch of jobs including making sure the place is water tight (the rain today will help with that), putting in a window to the building isn’t quite so much like a coffin, putting some sort of lighting up both inside the barn and around the first terrace, setting up a simple place to cook (or at least to make a hot drink), and building a very basic toilet.

But before the building gets to the stage to live in, I think I’ll want to have a little camping party so I can have some friends stay over with me and celebrate my first night on the land. So I guess my current main goals are focused around what I need to do to host a party! I’d probably just need a toilet and some lights as a minimum! And I’d want to wait until the seasonal fire ban is lifted (usually in October) so I can make a little fire pit as well. So I’m thinking about those two lists – what I need to do before moving in (coming in my next post), and what I need to do before having a party… the party, of course, being the priority!

So that’s been my process of deciding on an area to live, finding a piece of land to buy, and getting the purchase all wrapped up. It’s been quite easy for me the whole way through and I’d chalk that up to the sellers being eager, responsive, and just generally cool people and to having a lawyer.

So… I guess now I’m a land owner. A bit scary, but very exciting!