Portugal Sotheby’s International Realty experienced its best year on record in 2014, with 48% year-on-year growth in turnover, says general director Gustavo Soares.
The Portuguese luxury sector includes all property for sale costing over €500,000 and Soares has revealed that his company had sold 212 such properties last year. The average price was up 9% to €870,000, with total turnover for the company coming in at €185million. International clients accounted for two-thirds of this turnover, compared with 50% in 2013.
The French made up the largest proportion of overseas buyers (29%), followed by the Brazilians (17%) and British (14%). In terms of the average value of the property acquired, Angolans topped the ‘league’ (€1.8million), followed by the Chinese (€1.5 million) and British (€1.2million)
Soares added that “it is an urban myth when they say luxury stands up to everything”, reporting that turnover in the sector in Portugal had shrunk by 60% between 2007 and 2012, fractionally ahead of the global luxury market’s slide of “around 57%”.
