If you want to buy a house in Portugal, you might have some questions regarding vocabulary related to real estate in Portuguese. This is what I want to tackle in this post.
But first things first.
Before you decide to buy a house, you should decide whether this is the best option for you. While buying can give you a long-term solution and might be a good way to invest your money, renting can be more flexible and give you the freedom you need when you first move to Portugal.
Also, if you have already decided that buying is the best option for you, have you decided where to live?
In my opinion, Porto is one of the best places to build a life in Portugal. The city is not too big and not too small, it has amazing beaches and beautiful parks and a lot of nice things to do. Its history is also incredible, as the city is one of the oldest cities in Portugal.
But, ok…I am a bit biased, I know!
There are also many other cute places to check in Portugal – Lisboa, Sintra, Algarve, Coimbra, Braga, Guimarães…the list could go on! And these are some of the most populated places, but if you are a person that enjoys the countryside and a bit more quiet, you will definitely find a place amongst the thousands of little villages and towns across the country.
My favourite part of Portugal to enjoy the countryside is actually the center, near Serra da Estrela (our biggest mountain). If you haven’t visited it yet, make sure to do so!
Real Estate in Portuguese
Ok, now that we have covered some of the topics you may want to take a look at before purchasing a house in Portugal, we can talk about the terms that you need to get acquainted with, in order to know what to do.
When you start searching for a house, you will likely search for it on the internet. The problem is, most valuable sites are in Portuguese, and you might not know what to type in google, in order to get the best offers.
So, if you want to search for properties in Portuguese, you should type the following in google (or your preferred search engine):
- Casas para comprar em Portugal (Houses for sale in Portugal)
- Apartamentos para comprar em Portugal (Apartments for sale in Portugal)
This is a general search. If you know where you want to live, you can narrow it down, of course. Let’s say you want to live in Porto (good choice he he), you would type something like:
- Casas para venda no Porto
- Apartamentos para venda no Porto
One tip, if you want to search for houses in or around a city like Porto, you should select:
- Casas para venda no Grande Porto
- Apartamentos para venda no Grande Porto
If it is in Lisbon, you can also search for:
- Casas para venda na Grande Lisboa
- Apartamentos para venda na Grande Lisboa
Grande Porto and Grande Lisboa are the metropolitan areas of Porto and Lisbon, which means that all the municipalities that belong to these two cities will be included in your searches. Like this, you have more choices and prices tend to drop, the furthest away you are from the city centres.
So, if you searched for something like Apartamentos para venda na Grande Lisboa, you would not only get apartments that are located in the centre of the city, but also apartments that are in the outskirts of the city or even in a nearby town, like Amadora, for example.
Then, if you want to narrow it down even further, you can always include characteristics that you want your future house to have. Let’s say you want a garden, you can include that…or a pool, you can also include that.
However, I would not do it right in the search engine, but rather in the website of the real estate itself. Normally, you can choose right there which characteristics you want to have in your house.
If you want to check this in detail, please take a look at the video below, where I go step by step with you, to show you what are the options you can find on more or less all of these websites and what they mean 🙂
Real Estate Terms in Portuguese
Now that you know how to search for a house and what options to choose, depending on what you want, it is time to check some other terms related to real estate in Portuguese.
| Imobiliário/ Bens Imóveis | Real Estate |
| Agente imobiliário/ Mediador Imobiliário | Real Estate Agent |
| Agência imobiliária | Real Estate Agency |
| T1, T2..V1, V2… | These refer to the number of bedrooms you can find in a house. T is used for apartments and V for houses or villas. |
| Assoalhada | Rooms in a house. |
| Casa | House |
| Moradia/ Vivenda | House with some space around, generally a garden |
| Isolada | Detached house |
| Geminada | Semi-detached house |
| Apartamento | Apartment |
| Terreno | Land |
| Sala | Living-room |
| Cozinha | Kitchen |
| Quarto | Bedroom |
| Casa de banho | Bathroom |
| Lavandaria | Laundry Room |
| Despensa | Pantry |
| Escritório | Office/ Study Room |
| Jardim | Garden |
| Pátio | Yard |
| Varanda | Balcony |
| Terraço | Terrace |
| Garagem | Garage |
| Garagem Individual | Private Garage |
| Lugar de Garagem | Parking Space |
| Arrumos | Storage Room |
| Lareira | Fireplace |
| Recuperador de Calor | Heat Exchanger |
| Ar Condicionado | Air Conditioning |
| Aquecimento Central | Central Heating |
| Aquecedores | Heaters |
| Rés-do-Chão | Ground Floor |
| Andar/ Piso | Floor |
| Último andar | Penthouse |
| Cave | Basement |
| Piscina | Pool |
| Condomínio | Condominium/ Also the fee you pay per month when you buy a house, to keep the condo infrastructures (cleaning, elevators, common grounds, etc) |
| Condomínio Fechado | Gated Community |
| Água da rede | Municipality water |
| Luz/ Eletricidade | Electricity |
| Gás Natural | Natural Gas |
| Contador | Meter (Can be related to water or electricity and it is where what you spend is counted). |
If you want to learn more about the Portuguese language, make sure to check out my online courses. If you are a beginner, I recommend that you start with my free Kickstarter Course.
Useful websites if you want to buy a house in Portugal
I have searched for different websites that can help you move to Portugal and find a house in Portugal, among other things. If you are interested, just check out the links below:
www.globalcitizensolutions.com
And that’s it! If you see that I have missed something above, and you want to know the name of something specific related to real estate in Portuguese, let me know!
Also, write a comment below telling me if you are thinking of purchasing a house in Portugal and if you already have a favourite location to settle down 🙂
I hope you have enjoyed this article about buying houses in Portugal and I hope you find the things you have learnt here useful!
Beijinhos,
Mia.
Ola Mia,
Thank you very much for this post. It provides a very helpful overview. The posted links help answering many additional questions that come with considering a move to Portugal.
Big kudos for your language class and all the additional information that you are sharing.
Obrigada!
Sylvia
Olá Sylvia,
Thank you so much for the feedback. I am glad you found it helpful 🙂
Beijinhos,
Mia
This is very helpful to learn real estate vocabulary. Thanks for putting this word list together. I can’t wait to visit Portugal!
Olá Jeannine 🙂 You are welcome 🙂 I am glad you found this list useful!
I hope you can visit Portugal soon and that you enjoy your time here. I think you will like it!
Beijinhos,
Mia.
I am already taking your online course A1 and have learned so much already. It is so well done. We are coming to Colviha
in the beginning of September to look for a place to live. Hope we can meet you someday after we are settled.
Olá!
Wow, I am so glad you are enjoying my A1 course 🙂 That makes me happy.
Ah, you are coming to Covilhã! That´s a nice area of Portugal. I hope you like it here and that you find what you are looking for 🙂
Yes, maybe in the future we can meet!
Beijinhos,
Mia.
PS – Would you like to make a review about my course? Written or in a video? I am always looking for more reviews, so that other potential students can find out through real people how my course is and how they can benefit from it 🙂 If so, please send me an email to mia@learn-portuguese.org. Muito obrigada!
Again, very useful for whoever wishes to buy a property in Portugal. This could be me, as I would love to live in a sunny climate all year round, while the temperature is never excessively hot, near the ocean. Learning the language would certainly help me avoid all the pitfalls of dealing with realtors. Plus, understanding the locals is always a charming addition to any type of travel.
Hi Joss,
thank you for your comment 🙂 Yes, being able to communicate with the locals can be really a very nice experience.
Beijinhos,
Mia
Hi Mia, thank you for your enlightening post. I like the fact that you gave some background on places in Portugal first. Having never visited the country I enjoyed that.
I thought that the words and phrases you shared are absolutely essential when shopping for real estate. I know we need to know even more because that ‘s just the most basic. I do think that more lesson on pronunciation is just as important.
Candy Benn
Hi Candy,
thank you for your comment. I am happy that you enjoyed my post.
I am covering Portuguese pronunciation in all of my online courses and specifically in my Speech Course, where you learn all the sounds of the language.
Beijinhos,
Mia
Hi there Mia!
Thanks for this useful post about real estate vocabulary! You are right! These words are really necessary and we HAVE to know them if we want to invest in a place where people speak portuguese! I was really engaged from the beginning and I have to say I really like that you add videos of yoursel!
Thanks a lot!
Hi Juan,
thank you very much for your comment 🙂 I am happy you enjoyed the article.
Beijinhos,
Mia