Lifestyle & Culture

Mónica Da Silva in Lisbon: Quintas, the wonderful (and inexpensive) Portuguese properties everyone is raving about


If you’re interested in turning to a relaxed, slower and healthier lifestyle in the near future, this post is for you. Portugal has tons of hidden treasures to offer you and quintas are one of them. But what exactly is a quinta? The best equivalent in English might be an estate.

A quinta is a rural property that includes a large parcel of land. A lot of expats are buying them because of their low prices and huge value.

They are a remnant of the luxurious living of old when people could live off their land. sell their farm products and sustain their lifestyle. Currently, some of the Portuguese families who still own quintas have vineyards, and that’s why you can see a lot of wines called quinta plus the family name of the owners.

On the other hand, a lot of quintas were abandoned for years and are now being sold for very low prices.

Types of quinta properties

Depending on what you’re looking for, there might be different options available. For example, a big number of these properties are ruins and need to be built from the ground up, a wonderful project if you enjoy working with your hands and have a lot of free time. These are definitely the cheapest options to purchase, but take into account the amount of time and money you’ll need to invest in them before they are ready to be habitable.

If you want to start your own renovating project, there are some properties in an acceptable condition with solid structures that just need a moderate investment of time, money and love. If that’s the case, the prices are a bit higher than the ones that need to be rebuilt from the ground up, but they are still cheap. Finally, if you want a renewed quinta which is ready for you to move in there are also a lot of options although they are more pricey than the previous ones.

Areas and prices

You can find quintas all over the country. Some of the areas with a lot of properties of this type are Castelo Branco and Santarém. Castelo Branco is a district almost at the border of the country, two hours aways from the cities of Coimbra (Portugal), and Cáceres (Spain). Santarém is another district located closer to Lisbon, and that’s why the properties there are a little bit more expensive.

Let’s talk numbers:

In the area of Castelo Branco, for example, with an area ranging from 0.2 to 2 hectares you can find quintas that need to be rebuilt from the ground priced from 5,000 euros to 40,000 euros. There are also some with solid structures that don’t require major intervention and go from 30,000 euros up to 80,000. Finally, there are wonderful properties that are ready for you to move in for 100,000 euros and up, which from my point of view is still incredibly cheap compared to the prices of properties in the district of Lisbon.

Resources

So far, I have found two Youtube channels that are vlogging their experiences before and after purchasing a quinta in Portugal: OKportugal and The Indigo Escape.

So, if you think that buying a quinta might be an option for you, I highly recommend you to take the time to watch their videos and learn from their experiences.

Once you’re ready, you can check websites such as:

Quintaseterrenos,

Pure Portugal

• and Homekey Portugal.

I can personally recommend GoRustico because I have been in touch with them recently, and they have been nothing but honest and straightforward about all the properties. I highly recommend anyone who is interested in investing on quintas to get in touch with agencies or realtors that are familiar with them. There are important legal details that must be explored and discussed before purchasing.

For example, some of these lands might not be registered as building plots, so you are not allowed to build a house there. Some others are off-the-grid so they don’t have water or electricity. Depending on the project you have, this might or might not affect you.

But of course, it’s very important to have this clarified before investing your money.

About the author:

Mónica Da Silva was born in Venezuela but her parents and grandparents are Portuguese. She’s a teacher and translator. Mónica lived in Bonn, Germany for six months and has been in Lisbon for almost three years.

She speaks Spanish, Portuguese, English, French and a bit of German.

Read more of Mónica’s posts for Dispatches here.

Read more about Lisbon and Portugal in our Dispatches archives

Website | + posts

Mónica da Silva is half-Venezuelan, half Portuguese and has lived in Venezuela, Portugal, Spain and Germany. She has studies linguistics and has a Bachelor’s Degree in European Studies. Besides contributing to Dispatches, she works remotely as an English teacher, which allows her to be on the move as often as she wants. 

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