Our service
NIF Number – Tax Number
All economic activities conducted by investors in Portugal must be done in accordance with Portuguese law. To engage in any economic activity in Portugal, whether it is real estate investment, starting a business, or investing in any other field, you must register with the tax authorities and obtain a Portuguese tax number. For comparison, we can equate this to the situation in Portugal – the tax system in Portugal links taxes to the national ID number of its citizens (or to the resident identification number for those who do not have a national ID number), and citizens report to the tax authorities and pay taxes in a simple and transparent manner. Additionally, when foreign investors want to invest in Portugal, they must go to the Portuguese tax authorities and obtain a tax number in order to begin conducting any financial and economic activity in the country. It is not possible to operate legally in Portugal without completing this process.
A similar system exists in many countries around the world, including Portugal. If you are not a citizen or resident of Portugal but wish to engage in any economic activity there, you must register with the tax authorities to obtain a local tax number, thus making your economic activity legal. With the tax number, you can also open a local bank account, deposit and withdraw money, use a credit card, and, of course, receive financing for your investments from the bank.
So, how do you get it? For those who do not speak Portuguese or are not familiar with the legal authorities in Portugal, obtaining a tax number can be quite a complex process. The procedure involves dealing with a lot of bureaucracy, paperwork, and interactions with officials at the authorities, who usually only speak Portuguese. Despite their willingness to help you, you may not always succeed in communicating with them.
The service we offer our clients (and also use ourselves for our investments) is to employ the services of a local tax advisor or lawyer – who are familiar with the law, the common practices in the country, and, of course, speak the language, allowing them to streamline the process and accelerate it significantly. While there is a certain cost involved in hiring the services of a local professional, there is no doubt that the service can save investors valuable time and the hassle of dealing with cumbersome bureaucracy in a foreign language.
Opening a local bank account
One of the first and most important things every investor in Portugal should do is open a local bank account. This is the right and recommended way to obtain real estate financing, manage your investments, and continuously track your expenses and income.
Banks in Portugal offer financing rates of about 75% of the property’s value with an annual interest rate of 1%, even for foreign investors. In order to have the option to purchase real estate in Porto and receive the most suitable financing for it, you must open a bank account. The money you receive from renting the property will go into this bank account, and it can also be used for other expenses in Europe – for example, if you want to withdraw money, make transactions, or other investments.
When non-local people who do not speak the language wish to open a local bank account, they often face procedural difficulties related to the language barrier and a lack of in-depth knowledge of the local conditions, so there may even be significant difficulty in understanding all the terms offered to you, the interest rates, and the various options available.
As part of our service, we offer ongoing support to our clients during the process of opening a local bank account in Portugal. We will help you bridge the language gap and understand in-depth what your mortgage terms are, what your obligations are towards the bank, and most importantly – we will assist you in understanding how to access and utilize your funds.
Property Search for Investment
Many people want to invest and preserve the value of their money. It is now clear to everyone that if our money is ‘sitting’ in the bank and we are not investing it or using it, its value erodes, and we end up losing out.
In recent years, the awareness has grown that one of the best ways to preserve the value of our money, and even to earn additional amounts and increase our equity, is to invest in real estate and purchase income-generating properties. Real estate acquisition is one of the few ways in which you can purchase a property worth more than our own equity, through the option of taking a loan against the property – thus essentially becoming the owner of a property worth more than the amount we have in the bank.
However, finding suitable real estate for investment is a complex process. It is not easy to find a good and financially rewarding deal that will allow us to earn a high return, without losing money in the purchase. Our goal is to rent out the property and receive rental income every month, but ultimately, we aim to sell the property for a higher price than we paid for it. Finding such a property requires preliminary and in-depth research, various checks, and prior experience in the real estate field.
As part of the service we offer to our clients, we match each investor with the most suitable property for them, according to their budget and financial capabilities, as well as their investment goals. Once the property is matched to the client, we will use the extensive experience we have gained over the years and our expertise in real estate investment in Porto to find the most suitable investment for you.
Our goal is to find the most suitable property that will generate the highest return for our investor, while taking into account all parameters and variables (including taxes, fees, additional expenses, loans, and potential rent), and ensuring at every stage that the potential profit from the deal is significantly higher than the expenses.
Finding a Tenant
You’ve gathered your equity, gone through all the steps and bureaucracies on the way to purchasing the property, the local bank in Porto has approved your mortgage, you’ve found the property you want, and even received the keys to it. The next step is to ensure you continue to earn from your property – by finding a tenant who will pay you monthly rent for using the property.
The first step after purchasing a property is to locate and find the right tenant. In many places around the world, the rental market works similarly to Portugal – the goal of the property owner is to find a stable and reliable tenant who will live in the property for a long time, take care of it, and pay the rent on time.
We understand the importance of finding people who will live in the property for many years, who have the ability to pay, and who will take care of your property and not damage it. We ourselves are property owners in Porto, and we are looking for such tenants for ourselves as well.
As part of our consulting and guidance service, we will find the right tenant for you and manage all the negotiation processes with them, up until the signing of the lease agreement with you. We will demand the appropriate guarantees on your behalf, draft the lease agreement that suits you, and negotiate with the tenant until the signing stage. We understand and are familiar with the market in Porto, and we know exactly where to find the most suitable tenants for your property in any neighborhood where you choose to purchase a property.
Once we find a suitable tenant for your property, the rent they will pay for the property each month will be transferred directly to the Portuguese bank account you opened.
Property Management
When you purchase a property for investment, in most places around the world, in most cases, you will have to deal with various issues and damages that may occur in the property – whether it’s a pipe burst in the house, a leak, faulty heating, or any other event that may require the intervention of an external professional. It’s important to know that every country has different laws regarding these issues, so it’s necessary to be familiar with the relevant laws of the country where you are purchasing an investment property.
Similar to the practice in Portugal, in Portugal, it’s likely that when there’s a problem in the apartment – the first step the tenant will take is to contact the property owner, report the issue, and demand that it be fixed. In such a case, you have several options.
One option is to go to the property and fix the issue yourself. However, this is often not a viable option for foreign investors, as they do not always live in the country or city where the property is located.
Another option is to ask the tenant to handle the issue themselves and come to an arrangement with them regarding offsetting the cost of repairs. However, in many cases, the property owner does not have the time or availability to deal directly with the tenants of their property. There is also the concern that the tenant will choose a professional who is not properly trained or experienced to handle the issue (so your property may receive poor-quality treatment, and the issue may recur in the near future), or the tenant might choose an overly expensive professional that will cost you quite a bit.
The third option is to manage this operation through us. Some of the services we offer also include an option to handle every step of the process with the tenant – including resolving any issues or problems that the tenant might encounter. These issues are addressed by local field professionals and experts we have been working with for many years, so we can guarantee efficient, fast, and accurate handling of any issue or problem that may arise.
Property Sale
After you have purchased a real estate property in Porto, and perhaps even rented it out to a local tenant, there may come a time when you will want to sell the property – whether you want to invest in another property or need the money for another purpose.
If you decide to sell your property in Porto, we can assist you throughout the entire process. We have the experience and expertise necessary to understand the real estate market trends in the city – we will understand when the right and recommended time has arrived to sell your property in order to achieve the highest possible return and meet the goals we defined together at the beginning of the process.
Additionally, we will help you find the right buyer for your property. In this way, you can achieve the highest return at any point in time you choose to sell the property, thereby increasing your equity as much as possible.
We will accompany you through all stages of the process – from locating the buyer, through negotiations, to signing the contract and handling the associated bureaucracy. We will ensure you pay all the necessary taxes according to the law, and that the property sale process proceeds as smoothly and efficiently as possible. All stages of the property purchase and sale process are managed with complete transparency towards the investor, including explanations of each step in the process.
We will ensure that you find the right buyer for your property and secure the best possible offer for its sale. The goal is, of course, to sell the property at a higher price than what you purchased it for, but also to ensure that the annual return on your equity is as high as possible. We have extensive experience in purchasing and selling high-return properties in Porto.
