The Adam Carolla Project,All for One,American Dream Builders,Äntligen hemma,The Antonio Treatment,Any Woman Can,Bath Crashers,The Block,Bought & Sold,Building A Difference,Buy Me,Changing Rooms,Clean Sweep,Colin and Justins Home Heist,Color Splash,Dear Genevieve,Debbie Travis Facelift,Deck Wars,Decked Out,Design Inc,Design on a Dime,Designed to Sell,Designer Guys,Designers Challenge,Designing for the Sexes,Desperate Houses,Divine Design,Divine Restoration,DIY SOS,Domestic Blitz,Don't Sweat It,Dream House,Einsatz in 4 Wänden,Ellen's Design Challenge,Extreme Makeover Home Edition,Extreme Makeover,The Fix,Flip or Flop,Flip That House,Flip This House,Game of Homes,Handy Round the Home,Help My House is Falling Down.HGTV Star,Holmes Inspection,Holmes on Homes,Home Improvement,Hometime,House Doctor,House Rules,How Not to Decorate,If Walls Could Talk,In a Fix,It Takes a Thief,Kitchen Accomplished,Leave It to Bryan,Living with Ed,Man Caves,Michael Holigan's Your New House,Million Pound Property Experiment,Monster House,Neat,NY Residential,Operation Build,The Outhouse,Property Brothers,Property Ladder,The Real Estate Pros,Renovation Nation,Renovation Rescue,The Renovators,Room Service,Room to Improve,Sarah's House,Save Us from Our House,The Stagers,Straight Plan for the Gay Man,Sweat Equity,Take This House and Sell It,This Old House,Trading Spaces, Trading Spaces Boys vs Girls,The Vanilla Ice Project,Yard Crashers,Seixal,Aveiro,Barcelos,Bragança,Caldas da Rainha,Cantanhede,Cartaxo,Castelo Branco,Chaves,Coimbra,Entroncamento,Espinho,Estremoz,Évora,Fátima,Ourém,Figueira da Foz,Fundão,Gafanha,Nazaré,Mangualde,Marinha Grande,Mealhada,Montemor-o-Novo,Oliveira do Hospital,Ourém,Ovar,Paços de Ferreira,Paredes,Penafiel,Peniche, Pombal, Rio Maior,Santa Comba Dão,Seia,Tarouca,Tomar,Tondela,Torres Novas,Torres Vedras,Vendas Novas, Vila Nova de Gaia,Viseu,Vizela,Figueira da Foz

Home building and Renovation

If you are coming to Portugal either to buy a property or already own one you will no doubt be interested in the Home building and Renovation Show which is held in London during September. http://www.homebuildingshow.co.uk/

Has there ever been a time when home alterations and renovations were more fashionable and popular. For most people it’s not just about the significant increases in value that you can make to a home. It is about living somewhere stylish and knowing that you have played a major part in what was achieved.

The Adam Carolla Project,All for One,American Dream Builders,Äntligen hemma,The Antonio Treatment,Any Woman Can,Bath Crashers,The Block,Bought & Sold,Building A Difference,Buy Me,Changing Rooms,Clean Sweep,Colin and Justins Home Heist,Color Splash,Dear Genevieve,Debbie Travis Facelift,Deck Wars,Decked Out,Design Inc,Design on a Dime,Designed to Sell,Designer Guys,Designers Challenge,Designing for the Sexes,Desperate Houses,Divine Design,Divine Restoration,DIY SOS,Domestic Blitz,Don't Sweat It,Dream House,Einsatz in 4 Wänden,Ellen's Design Challenge,Extreme Makeover Home Edition,Extreme Makeover,The Fix,Flip or Flop,Flip That House,Flip This House,Game of Homes,Handy Round the Home,Help My House is Falling Down.HGTV Star,Holmes Inspection,Holmes on Homes,Home Improvement,Hometime,House Doctor,House Rules,How Not to Decorate,If Walls Could Talk,In a Fix,It Takes a Thief,Kitchen Accomplished,Leave It to Bryan,Living with Ed,Man Caves,Michael Holigan's Your New House,Million Pound Property Experiment,Monster House,Neat,NY Residential,Operation Build,The Outhouse,Property Brothers,Property Ladder,The Real Estate Pros,Renovation Nation,Renovation Rescue,The Renovators,Room Service,Room to Improve,Sarah's House,Save Us from Our House,The Stagers,Straight Plan for the Gay Man,Sweat Equity,Take This House and Sell It,This Old House,Trading Spaces, Trading Spaces Boys vs Girls,The Vanilla Ice Project,Yard Crashers,Seixal,Aveiro,Barcelos,Bragança,Caldas da Rainha,Cantanhede,Cartaxo,Castelo Branco,Chaves,Coimbra,Entroncamento,Espinho,Estremoz,Évora,Fátima,Ourém,Figueira da Foz,Fundão,Gafanha,Nazaré,Mangualde,Marinha Grande,Mealhada,Montemor-o-Novo,Oliveira do Hospital,Ourém,Ovar,Paços de Ferreira,Paredes,Penafiel,Peniche, Pombal, Rio Maior,Santa Comba Dão,Seia,Tarouca,Tomar,Tondela,Torres Novas,Torres Vedras,Vendas Novas, Vila Nova de Gaia,Viseu,Vizela,Figueira da Foz
Buying a home in Portugal

If you are an armchair renovation fan or aspiring property developer you may have watches some of the hundreds of home building and renovation shows on TV.

Home building and renovation in Portugal has a slightly different aspect to what you would expect to find in the UK.

For instance older properties in the UK are generally built to superior standards than what you will find in the equivalent age Portuguese property. Which means that you must always prepare for and fund the basics first.

What are the basics?

1, Rising damp, penetrating damp and high levels of condensation.

2, Damaged roofs, sagging or rotten roof timbers and poor quality roof tiles.

3, Wet rot and dry rot

4, Woodworm.

5, Insulation

6, Sewerage

7, Heating

All of this before you apply even a lick of paint!

We often meet people from all over Europe who have packed everything up to come over and start home building and renovation work in Portugal. Very often they have made lots of plans so of which can be fanciful indeed. They often are in such a hurry to “get moving” that they buy materials and expensive tools (I must admit I fell into the expensive tools bracket), containers and vehicles in order to hit the ground running.

Everyone will not have even considered half of the 7 items above and will commence the admittedly exiting project of home building and renovation. Most people will have little or no previous building experience.

As a rough estimate based on our experience 10% will be back to their home country in the first year. Many would have found that Portugal wasn’t for them or may have run out of money.

Another 10% will have found that there was legal issues, planning constraints or structural problems with the building that they purchased. They will also go back to their home country in the first year.

A further 20% will live in a property that was bigger than they had back home. They may have over stretched themselves financially and not tackled the basics first. They will now be in a position where they can not afford the cost of tackling them or don’t want the disturbance so they live with the ongoing problems of constant damp and high humidity causing the need for yearly redecoration and maintenance. They live with mouldy clothes and that tell-tale smell.

They will also find the first year of living here the coldest that they have experienced.

Half of these people will sell up and leave within three years of arriving in Portugal.

What would our advice be –
1, If you know that you don’t have the skills to take a dispassionate and informed look at the property that you ant to buy. Pay someone to look at the property for you.

Ideally before you have made an offer in writing.

2, Use a professional company to cure the damp problems or install a modern sewerage system.

3, If the roof needs replacing or renovation have it done professionally as this will speed up your renovation and make a dry, safe environment to work under.

 

Casteloconstruction can help you get the best out of your move to Portugal

check out or website WWW.casteloconstruction.com or email us and we will call you for a chat about your property.