2025 Is Your Best Chance to Buy Property in Portugal?

🏡 All About Getting a Mortgage in Portugal
Are you considering purchasing a property in Portugal? Whether you're exploring real estate in Portugal for a dream home or planning to invest in Portuguese real estate, we’ve got your financing covered! Kalie from ExpatsEverywhere sits down with Rafael, a mortgage broker, to discuss the important things you need to know. From understanding what can be offered to you as a foreigner in Portugal to navigating the mortgage process, our questions for Rafael will be the only resource you need for buying a property with a mortgage in Portugal.

🌏 ABOUT US
Hi! We’re Josh and Kalie, expats since 2009. We’ve lived in Spain, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and now Portugal (we know, we broke the “S” streak 😅). Follow ExpatsEverywhere for expat interviews, city breakdowns, travel tips, and more to help you live your best life abroad!

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Chapters
00:00 - Intro
00:16 - What documents do banks need to get a mortgage in Portugal?
01:00 - Can a retiree get a mortgage in Portugal?
01:09 - Do you have to be a resident in Portugal or at least have a visa to live in Portugal to get a mortgage?
01:43 - Are the rules different for foreigners buying a property in Portugal?
02:12 - Are there age limits?
03:34 - What are the interest rates like in Portugal?
04:22 - Will interest rates maintain these levels throughout the year (2025)?
04:38 - What does the whole mortgage process look like?
05:53 - What's the benefit of using a mortgage broker vs directly going to a bank? (Surprising Answer)
07:33 - How much do clients pay for your services?
08:19 - SCENARIO of a €300,000 property purchase
10:18 - Can someone get a mortgage completely remotely?
11:10 - Advice to those interested in purchasing a property in Portugal

[carminfrancisco]

Rafael and his recommendations made our apartment purchase a huge success! It wasn’t without stress, but he navigates the process so well.

[yumikosato]

Rafael helped our daughter (with D8 status) to purchase her apartment in Dec 2024. He made the process 🎉clear, easy-to-follow and logical for us. His recommended lawyer and real estate agents are great. Of course, Kalie connected us! 🎉🎉 Thank you!

[lga]

Big thanks to Kalie and Rafael. It has been a great chat with Rafael, he is knowledgeable and resourceful. He gave some really good suggestions on my new apartment waiting for completion, not only on the mortgage side but also useful contacts for airbnb management.

[rapidresponserepairllc.man]

The Best video so far! EXCELLENT. WELL DONE Kalie and Rafael

[terrisokolow]

Very useful information! Good job, Kalie!

[redsand]

Rafael was the very best part of buying our home in Porto. Cannot recommend him enough.

[Lulu-qlmq]

Good Job Josh and Kalie; very informative interview! 👏🏻👏🏻I believe Rafael is the right person assisting in the process of finding the best mortgage; he’s very caring and knowledgeable !!! Happy & Blessed 2025 🍾

[Cetan]

Great information, very helpful. Thanks Kalie and Josh.

[josemariamesquitajr.]

The best video. Congratulations Kalie and Rafael

[jlovel]

This was very helpful guys!! thanks so much!

[tamaramadelin]

Great interview with a great very knowledgeable guy...Go with Rafael!

[marthajohnson]

This was an awesome video and very informative.

[hashemkazemi]

Very important information. Thank you.

[bireshwarmitra]

Look forward to connecting someday. Very informative

[CGsYTChannel]

Those are way better rates than I heard from the banks a year ago. I think it was 5 or 5.5%. I might just need to reach out to Rafael about my situation! Thanks for the video, as always!!

[chuckd.]

So wonderful! ❤ We may give him a call!

[grizfan]

Something I may have missed in the €300K scenario that will impact your monthly payments is home owner's insurance and annual property tax (IMI). The good news is that if you are coming from the US, these expenses are much lower. You wind up paying a LOT more up front, but for that €300K example, expect roughly €300 each for insurance and IMI, per year. So once you take that initial tax hit, your ongoing costs are much less. Now, there's several factors that could change these numbers, as different municipalities have different IMI rates (typically from .3 to .5 of 1 percent or .003-.005) of the assessed value (Valor patrimonial actual (CIMI)), and there's a different rate structure for rural vs urban, but the overall tax structure in this specific situation is probably a lot lower than folks from the US are used to. So, while your overall tax burden will definitely be higher in Portugal, this is one area where things are better.

[noelxavier]

Thanks Kalie. Where is the opening shot in your video? Beautiful streetscape!

[jorgevaranda]

Another great video kaile how can I connect with Rafael?

[IamGold]

Very interesting! Do you (or Rafael) think that prices will rise in the next 5 years?