# Silver Coast house prices



## Stellen (Mar 19, 2010)

We had a house hunting trip to the Silver Coast in June last year. We saw about 20 detached properties and only liked a couple. However, we decided not to make any offers.

We’ve kept in touch with the agent and most of the properties we saw are still for sale. He has just emailed us to tell us that although sellers do not want to drop the advertised sale price they will accept offers of between 25-35% lower than the advertised price. Stating the obvious, he told us it’s a buyer’s market.

We’ll wait till Portugal has to accept an EU/IMF bailout, then house prices might fall further. We may even be able to afford to move further south for the warmer winters!


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## silvers (Sep 22, 2008)

Hi Stellen,
I think the agent is yanking your chain. I have never met anyone who is prepared to take off such a significant chunk of the asking price, unless the house is falling down.
The bailout will not affect the house prices, the only thing that will is when the £ recovers against the €, and the only people who will benefit from that are Brits bringing their stronger £.
As for moving further south, you would also have to move inland or to the Med, anywhere on the Atlantic coast is affected by the Ocean.


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## stephanie (Nov 11, 2008)

I agree entirely Silvers!

I work for a real estate agency and don't know many sellers who would reduce the price of their property by such a large amount. The Portuguese mentality is to just wait until someone comes along who is willing and able to buy at the asking price, or close to it. That is why the prices here remain stable. You just don't get the boom and bust situation that you find in countries like the UK.

The few buyers who are willing to take a large drop in price are either in trouble with the bank or over priced their property to start with.

If you want to buy a property in Portugal - just buy it and stop wasting your life. . .


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## omostra06 (Sep 11, 2007)

There are some people willing to accept reduced prices for their property, but others are not, some owners are happy to just wait it out till a buyer comes along, and some owners are not in a position to take lower offers, maybe they have a mortgage on the property over what the low offer would be, maybe they paid top money for it and have neg equity situation. 
so it would be impossible for an agent to tell you a general statement that owners will take 25-35% lower ! he cant speak for them all, they all have different situations and ideas about what to accept, some will not budge on price others might even take a higher reduction that quoted, its all very much a house by house situation.
Also dont forget that many properties start out on the market overpriced, so even with a big reduction being suggested by an agent, perhaps this would just bring the price inline with current correct market value.
I have seen a few properties advertised at upto 50,000 euros more by some agents than others have the same house for, only to then months later see on their website, "huge price reduction" "bargain" "25-35% off" etc, which would then just bring it to the same price as other agents have had it at all along! so people might think they are getting a bargain, but might not be.

It is a good time to try and pick up a bargain and i wouldnt be affraid to go in quite low with any offers you think about making, you can always move up and we have seen some owners taling low offers so it is worth a try, but each owner is different, take advantage of the feeling that the market is flat and try to get a bargain, but do check what other simillar properties are worth to make sure you understand the market and the values,


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

silvers said:


> Hi Stellen,
> I think the agent is yanking your chain. I have never met anyone who is prepared to take off such a significant chunk of the asking price, unless the house is falling down.


I'd agree, having recently been looking in that area, ridiculus statement, apart from it's a buyers market. As a matter of interest is it a licenced agent or an internet agent?


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## robc (Jul 17, 2008)

There is one other big issue worth considering. 

Will this bargain house provide you with the facilities and amenities in order that you can live there in fulfilled contentment (or as close as is humanely possible!).

Just because a house is cheap it does not necessarily make it good or better, it may be much more expensive in the long term as it may require more maintenance, it may be further away from where you want to be, you may tire of it and then look to sell it on and buy what you really wanted.

Maybe it would be better to just go and find what you want, then negotiate a deal and buy it.

Rob


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## silvers (Sep 22, 2008)

The other thing to consider is that when the £ does recover, I fully expect an exodus of Brits over here, they will all be buying houses here, try getting a bargain then!


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## Stellen (Mar 19, 2010)

The agency is Portuguese. All the staff are Portuguese but they speak excellent English. It could be that the agency itself is inflating prices. I do not know. Here is part of the message:

The market its not very good, but we had a really nice 2010 has the properties have droped 25 to 35% on the price so the buyers have bought the oportunities. Just to give you an idea, last week a property of 295 000euros was sold by 220 000euros.


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

Not quite your original comments agents or at least reputable ones rarely inflate prices, they need to sell properties to make a living.


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## connal (Mar 4, 2010)

canoeman said:


> Not quite your original comments agents or at least reputable ones rarely inflate prices, they need to sell properties to make a living.


While agreeing broadly with previous comments, my own experience has been this. We bought a house on the silver coast three years ago after extensive research both independently and through agents. We are not gullible people and the price we paid was totally in line with the asking prices of the 30 other properties we had looked at. Yet a few months ago when we had the house valued (by three separate agents) with a view to selling the best price that any of them came up with was 25 per cent below what we paid. Somewhere along the line the sums don't add up.


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

connal said:


> Somewhere along the line the sums don't add up.


3 years ago the property market to expats was still reasonably bouyant, especially in the "desirable" areas, since then the econimic crisis across Europe has seriously affected the number of expat buyers, so yes prices have and will drop, and will probably affect the expat owner more than a Portuguese owner.


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## MrBife (Jul 26, 2009)

canoeman said:


> 3 years ago the property market to expats was still reasonably bouyant, especially in the "desirable" areas, since then the econimic crisis across Europe has seriously affected the number of expat buyers, so yes prices have and will drop, and will probably affect the expat owner more than a Portuguese owner.



I agree and although many may prefer to continue to think otherwise my own feeling is that the actual value of all property has dropped by 20% over the past couple of years.


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## omostra06 (Sep 11, 2007)

MrBife said:


> I agree and although many may prefer to continue to think otherwise my own feeling is that the actual value of all property has dropped by 20% over the past couple of years.


i dont think the market is as straight forward as that, yes prices have dropped in some regions, Algarve and silver coast for example. These regions were/are quite sought after by overseas buyers so while the demand was good the prices crept up steadily. as things slowed down, owners, agents, developers started lowering prices to get people interested. so the property in these regions have in fact lost value, from a couple of years ago, (generally speaking)

Other regions where prices had not gone up in line with more expat aware regions such as the silver coast, didnt see the bigger price increase, so have not moved up or down much at all in the last couple of years, as a result prices in these regions have stayed much the same.

then further to this you have the difference in type of property, some property types remain in high demand, e.g. properly restored farmhouses, in good locations, are still very saught after from overseas buyers as well as local buyers, so the value of these types of properties has remained strong, and as there is not a glut of them on the market buyers have to look hard to find a good one,

better than say new builds which are less in demand, and there are lots of them on the market, all very much the same, so more available than the demand for them means the prices will drop.

also as buyers budgets change (most have come down) different previously unexplored types of properties come onto peoples radar. perhaps a self build or renovation. 
as well as people choice of location changing if they feel they will get more for their money somewhere else. they are now looking at it, so this could explain why some agents in rural locations have reported an increase in sales for 2010, giving them a great year, as more people choose to check out a new region, that is cheaper than the more traditional expat location. good for the rural agents but at the expense of the coastal agent who then has his worse year ever!

so depending on where and what you are looking to buy, different factors will affect the amount you will need to pay.


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## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

Just recently there have been two homes owned by expats sold locally. Both have sold at well below their original asking price! In one case a drop from 285k to 195k in the other from 295k to 225k. The both wanted desparately wanted to return to the UK. Both houses were in the Caldas da Rainha area


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## Spotters (Apr 17, 2010)

I like the several comments about "the pound recovering". Maybe it will fall further!


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## stephanie (Nov 11, 2008)

siobhanwf said:


> Just recently there have been two homes owned by expats sold locally. Both have sold at well below their original asking price! In one case a drop from 285k to 195k in the other from 295k to 225k. The both wanted desparately wanted to return to the UK. Both houses were in the Caldas da Rainha area


Yes, but perhaps they paid too much in the first place. . .


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## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

stephanie said:


> Yes, but perhaps they paid too much in the first place. . .


Don't think so Stephanie as I know both the properties personally. But I think being on the market for some time makes you think what it is you most want


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