Daniela Pereira, with a background in architecture and later in home staging, offers services throughout the Algarve
Selling a property has never been as easy and enjoyable as it is now, with an increasing number of marketing techniques, including home staging, and professionals available to help out, such as Daniela Pereira.
Originally from Ermidas do Sado in Alentejo, Daniela Pereira currently lives in Loulé. She has always been passionate about architecture, a field in which she completed her studies at the University of Évora, and had an interest in renovations and interior decoration.
“I’ve always loved homes,” she said while reminiscing about how she used to enjoy decorating her parents’ and great-grandmother’s house as a child. She spent a lot of time rearranging objects to make the space more appealing, and didn’t stop there.
Even when playing with her cousins, this side of her would come out. She recalls playing with her cousins in a unique way; while the boys raced toy cars, she spent her time building garages for them to park their cars in.
Building and decorating have always been a part of Daniela’s life. After completing her studies, she interned for two years both in Portugal and abroad, including experiences in Lisbon and Rotterdam, Netherlands, which is known as the capital of architecture.
However, the bureaucracy involved and amount of time spent in front of a computer made her reconsider where she truly wanted to dedicate her time to.
Like with many other people, the Covid-19 pandemic was a turning point in Daniela Pereira’s life. At the time, she decided to leave Fine & Country, the real estate agency she was working for, and moved to Lagoa, where she began investing in buying, renovating, and selling properties.
This experience exposed her to a previously unknown world and helped her learn sales techniques that led her to expand her horizons. When she realised that the changes she made to the properties were pleasing buyers and increasing their value, she started offering her services to interested parties.
The possibility of seeing her work bear fruit in a shorter time frame led her to choose home staging as a career path in the Algarve. “It’s frustrating to wait five years to see a project completed,” she said, referring to her previous career in architecture.
This is what motivated Daniela Pereira, now the owner of the company PURA atelier, to become a Home Stager through the Portuguese Association of Home Stagers (APHS). This additional training further prepared her to make properties more appealing by highlighting their strengths “so that they stand out from the competition.”
Contrary to what one might think, home staging is not related to architecture or interior decoration; instead, it involves “equipping properties or making adjustments to existing ones. It’s a marketing technique to sell properties more quickly and at the best price,” explained Daniela Pereira.
She explained that a home stager “needs to be knowledgeable about trends and what appeals to the general public”. Colours, object arrangement, cleanliness, comfort, and the absence of personal elements, such as pets or photographs, which represent the “depersonalisation of the property”, are all issues that home stagers take into account when preparing a house for sale.
The intention is to “capture the (buyer’s) attention and desire to purchase the property. The chosen objects are merely a sample of what the buyer could place there”, the specialist said, emphasising that her focus is “to reach a more generalised audience, unlike an interior designer who focuses on a specific case, whether it’s a family or an individual”.
Regardless of the age, gender, or nationality of a client, everyone seeks harmony, balance, and innovation, Daniela said. “The impact of entering a modernised and well-lit house immediately gives off the impression that it is new and problem-free. Anyone can imagine themselves living there,” she added.
Properties marketed with this service are typically sold at the requested price without room for negotiation because, according to Daniela, “buyers have nothing to criticise about the property”.
According to Daniela, statistics show that investing in staging a home adds “a value of 7% to 10% for the owner, with an investment between 1% to 3%”. However, this cost can be covered by either the real estate agency or the homeowner, or it can be shared between them. Other people who use this service include investors who build or renovate a property and property managers who have properties for rent.
Throughout her training, the architect learned that only 10% of the population has the ability to understand how to enhance a space, meaning that her work is precisely to help the remaining 90% who cannot visualise themselves in a house.
In addition to being recognised for her knowledge and experience, Daniela previously received various awards, including an honourable mention for a rehabilitation project for Cais do Ginjal in Cacilhas, Almada, and first place in a competition for Polis Litoral Ria de Aveiro.
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By BEATRIZ MAIO
