by Bart van Linden [email protected]
Bart van Linden is a director of Exclusive Algarve Villas, a local real estate company focused on selling high end properties and investment related real estate throughout Portugal.
In Portugal, being the king of the bureaucracy hill, there are often more questions than answers about how to develop a project.
What to buy and what not to buy, what are the steps necessary to obtain the required paperwork, how much time is needed from start to finish and what are the costs involved?
These are just a few questions many don’t have a clear answer to.
Even for real estate agents it is sometimes hard to keep up with the ever changing rules and regulations and the different entities which might be involved in a project.
Another difficulty is that each Câmara might have slightly different rules, making it even more complicated.
Actually, the logic of the Portuguese governing bodies can sometimes be questioned.
Just to give you an example: in the Algarve’s West Coast, you have the development of Espartal where you could buy a building plot in an urbanisation, on which normally a certain building permission is ‘pre-granted’.
However, the government blocked construction for about two years as the Parque Natural authority claimed it was an illegal construction.
Fortunately, all this has been resolved but it shows how vital good lawyers and architects are in the process of buying and developing land.
So by now you must be thinking: why on earth would I develop myself?
A few reasons can be thought of besides passing the time and that is that it mostly will prove to be a good investment vehicle. Secondly, you can build exactly what you want and to suit your budget.
Building a dream home according to your own specifications is a rewarding project.
With the help of a local architect and lawyer, I will try to cover as much ground as possible to give you a better insight of what is needed to get a project on the go.
In the next article, I will start to look at what to buy and how to start developing your dream home.
Bart van Linden can be contacted on 282 353 019, 912 826 969 or email [email protected]
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