Lisbon’s real estate market in recent years has seen some interesting developments. The historic city centre, largely composed of unoccupied and dilapidated 18th and 19th century buildings is slowly being gentrified and improved by a small selection of property investors who have recognised the value of these buildings. As the Portuguese upper-class moved out of these buildings and into the outlying suburbs, a growing middle class and expats from around the world are seeing the potential in renovating and splitting up these houses to make Lisbon’s historic city centre more attractive.
While the residential property market is seeing a new lease of life, Lisbon’s office property market remains restrained. The prices for Lisbon office space have stayed fairly consistent since 2015, due to both a lack of interest and lack of development. However, as of late 2017 Lisbon has received several new office complexes, mainly concentrated in the Business District.
In 2017, many savvy investors have begun snapping up the many empty office complexes that dot the landscape. For one, they’re cheap compared to the average prices in the rest of Europe, and the demand for new office complexes has slowly risen after some new developments made by financial and corporate firms. This could be a great time to diversify your portfolio in a rapidly growing sector of European real estate, although it’s hard to tell if this is a temporary spike in demand or a positive, sustainable interest that will continue to improve Portugal’s real estate market.
Even then, there’s still a strong demand for construction of new office blocks in Lisbon and nearby Porto, as the Portuguese economy is starting to recover from the recession that dealt a heavy blow in 2008. It’s likely that within a couple of years, Portugal will be a valuable part of any investment portfolio. Knightsbridge Ventures are a new property investment company bringing fresh new investors into Europe and overseas.