Villa Surveyors has successfully closed a property transaction in Lisbon, Portugal for two US Golden Visa applicants. It took us under two weeks to locate a property which met our clients criteria including the upper price limit. During the process we viewed around 30 different properties.

We kept our clients fully informed about all viewings, usually four or five a day, through daily WhatsApp chats with photos, email and phone calls. The feedback we got back from our clients was really important to refine the search criteria.

We used a regularly updated spreadsheet summarising all viewings. For each property this included the address, a link to the agents property details, floor area, price analysis, positives and negatives for each property and our recommendation.

Once our clients had identified the property they wished to purchase we successfully obtained the legal documentation, undertook a building survey and negotiated a price reduction prior to submitting the final offer. We then liaised with the clients lawyer up until completion.

Many Golden Visa applicants are extremely busy people who do not have sufficient time to come to Europe to search for a property. We have learnt that many applicants are very uncomfortable with participation in intensive two day inspection trips organised entirely by one agent, at the end of which they are expected to choose one of the properties they have viewed. That’s one of the reasons they come to us.

In this case our clients were very pleased that they were able to actively participate in the search. We encouraged them to search online property sites and let us know if they found any properties they wanted us to visit. At the end of each day of property visits we would call them and discuss each viewing for as long as they wished.

Finally, the investment property these Golden Visa clients purchased, was one they themselves had sourced from a Portuguese property portal we had suggested: Idealista.

The price of the apartment they purchased was above the originally agreed price limit but nevertheless we were happy to make the viewing and very pleased that they decided to buy it. The result of this is that our clients, a couple from the New York area, are now the very happy owners of an investment apartment in Lisbon.

Our clients are now busy learning Portuguese in anticipation of spending a considerable amount of time in Portugal, and Europe in general, over the coming years. We will be here to help them if they need us for anything until such time as they can come over themselves and even afterwards if required!

If you would like to discuss our Golden Visa property search service covering Portugal and

Spain, please get in touch for a chat.