Manor houses are for sale in Portugal for four to 19 million euros. Who buys them?
Spread throughout the country are small palaces, former monasteries and manor houses up for sale, with prices ranging from four to 19 million. What kind of investors seek this type of real estate?
It takes little effort to find several small palaces and luxurious manor houses in Portuguese real estate firms. The properties are spread throughout the country, and these royal properties’ prices easily surpass ten million euros. Who is investing?
This small palace in Lumiar, announced by the real estate agency Quintela e Penalva Real Estate, is being sold for 7.75 million euros. It is a part of two hectares of the S. Sebastião property, and this small luxurious mansion goes back to the 16th century and is fully remodeled. It has two bedrooms, four suites, a chapel and a library, games room and a huge garden with statues, fountains and small lakes.
Up North, in Póvoa de Lanhoso, Luximo’s Christies’s is selling a picturesque small palace in blue, located in Quinta Vila Beatriz. The property has a view to the Ave river, and its 12 bedrooms maintain the noble characteristics of the beginning of the 20th century — maintaining the hand painted walls and the sculptured ceilings. The rural museum and both wine brands the property offers the buyer turn it into a nine million euros sale.
Carlos Penalva, from Quintela e Penalva Real Estate, tells ECO we live in a country “with a great and extensive architecture history, which means we have fabulous small palaces all throughout the country. This diversity of size, location, time and prices mean there is a lot of demand from different investors with different profiles and nationalities”.
Prices keep increasing. But who invests in these types of projects? The manager of Quintela e Penalva Real Estate reveals that “the investment department has been working mostly with clients coming from China, Brazil, Turkey, North America, England, French and Middle East”. “The international market is much stronger for these types of real estate properties, and Luximo’s Christie’s has a solid portfolio of European clients, with special highlight to the British, Irish and French, but also from Russia, United Arab Emirates or Dubai”, stated Sofia Alves da Costa from the agency, to ECO.
Sofia Costa, from Luximo’s Christie’s, explains that “over the past few years, several international rankings place Portugal as one of the best destinations to invest in real estate because it is increasingly safer and profitable. In addition, the quality to price ratio of the Portuguese real estate is one of the best in Europe. These facts mean investors are keeping an eye on the Portuguese real estate market“.
From all the properties selected by ECO, this one is the cheapest: a small palace in Quinta da Abrigada, in Alenquer, is up for sale for 3.9 million euros with the help of the German Engel & Völkers. The agency recommends this eighteen century small palace to “foreign investors who appreciate life in a rural area”, according to the announcement.
When travelling to the magic village called Sintra, the real estate agency Fine & Country is selling this 13 bedrooms’ manor house for 15 million euros. It is included in the S. Tiago property, and it was built in the 16th century as a monastery, according to the announcement. This ten hectares’ farm remained it the same family for 70 years and was classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
According to the director of Quintela e Penalva Real Estate, “there has been a growing trend of transforming these types of real estate in luxury condos or hotels”. Similarly, Sofia Costa from Luximo’s Christie’s discloses there are private individuals with “a strong financing ability that invest in properties for personal use, to fulfill their dream of having an iconic house or to convert the property for tourism”.
As an example, we have this property sold by JLL, which took the most expensive real estate of the selection. This small palace, once a 16th century monastery, has several gardens and 19 hectares of land. “There was an approval for a hotel of 80 rooms, an aparthotel with 20 bedrooms, a golf club and 150 family dwellings”, according to the real estate agency’s announcement. All this for 19 million euros.
