Journal
Guides
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Building a house in Portugal: a realistic timeline
From buying a plot to moving in: how long licensing, tender and construction really take, and where the months actually go.
By Rui Tavares
Note
Guides
The question we hear most in a first meeting is not about style or budget. It is: how long will this take? The honest answer for a new house in Portugal is between eighteen and thirty months, and most of that time is not construction.
Before the first drawing
If you have not bought land yet, a feasibility study is the best money you will spend. In three weeks we check what the municipal plan allows, where the services are, how the sun moves across the site and what the ground is likely to cost you below the surface.
Licensing takes patience
Concept design takes around two months. The licence application that follows usually takes between four and eight months, depending on the municipality and whether the site sits in a protected area. We use that time to develop the interiors and the construction drawings, so nothing waits.
Tender and construction
We tender every house with three builders we trust and compare the prices line by line. Construction itself takes twelve to eighteen months for most of our houses, with a site visit from us every single week.
Restorations and renovations are faster on paper and less predictable in practice. Old walls keep secrets, and we plan for a contingency of eight to twelve per cent from the start.
