At the upper end of real estate brands sits Sotheby’s, an estate agency business that negotiated the sale of 51 luxury properties to foreign customers last year, especially in Lisbon and the Algarve, for an average value of €755,000.
Gustavo Soares, the Director-General of Sotheby’s in Portugal said that Portugal continues to attract foreign capital, benefiting Portuguese sellers and the country with inflowing capital and increasing domestic consumption."
Portuguese sellers represented 61% of the successful sales at the top end of the market.
Buyers were from France (17 %), the Middle East (16%), the UK (14%) and Brazil (11%).
The results from Sotheby's International Realty were presented this Wednesday and the management claimed of course that the majority of homes sold benefited from an exclusive sales agreement, commenting that this continues to be the most likely way to get a sale for owners.
Sotherby’s entered the Portuguese market in 2007 and has a branch in Vilamoura where it took over, some would say rescued, Vilamoura's Atlantic Estates in May 2010. This 'merger' aimed to include Artur Simes, founder and Managing Director of Atlantic Estates as 'office manager' for Sotheby's International Realty Vilamoura but he soon moved on and now is at Royal Park, Mauritius.
Sotheby’s aims to open a second Algarve branch later this year banking on an increase in the number of buyers in the luxury Algarve market. It is not yet known if the company will take on an existing estate agent or set up a new franchise. The American-owned brand works through international 'affiliates' or franchises and ultimately is controlled from New York where part of the estate agency fees earned in Portugal will be remitted.
In the first two months of 2014 the government approved 208 further "Golden Visas" in return for €108 million. The forecast from Lisbon is now for €500 million this year under the ‘Golden Visa’ process so there is clearly business to be done.
