How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Apartment Search
People warned me that finding an apartment in Lisbon would be a challenge, so I came with a game plan: I sublet a studio in central São Bento and set aside two weeks to focus full-time on the search.
I spent 8 hours a day, 5 days a week scouring apartment websites, calling real estate agents in my barely passable Portuguese, and visited a dozen apartments in person, steadily developing a sense of what I was looking for and what to avoid. Right as I felt like I was hitting my stride, I realized that I only had two days left in my sublet and I was still apartment-less. Luckily, a friend of mine was traveling, so I moved into his empty room and continued the search. I needed to hustle now.
During the third week, I stepped into the 14th apartment and knew immediately that it was the one. It was centrally located, next to a park, filled with natural light, and had a huge balcony. I sent an offer that day. Four days later I signed the lease, rented a car, bought a mattress and sofa bed at IKEA, and hosted my brother and his fiancé a week later.
This weekend will mark 1 month since I signed the lease. To celebrate, I'm writing down the whole experience from start to finish, partly so I remember it and partly to help others in their own search.
Deciding the criteria
The first thing I did was make a list of apartment criteria that are nice-to-have, important, and deal breakers. At first the only thing that I absolutely needed was an open kitchen because I love to host. This immediately eliminated the majority of Portugal apartments since the standard design is to have a kitchen tucked in a narrow hallway. Apparently it’s more common for Portuguese people to eat at the local tasca than cook, and that’s reflected in the architecture.
After a few visits to studio apartments, I also realized how important it was to me to be able to comfortably host friends and family visiting, which is impossible in a studio apartment. I increased my budget 200€ and started only looking at 1-bedrooms.
The other nice-to-haves for me were natural light, outdoor space, central neighborhood, nice appliances, and being close to the water where I like to run.
Finding apartment listings
Most people just look at Idealista, which has the most listings and a robust notification and filtering system. The problem is that many real estate agents and landlords only put their apartment on Idealista as a last resort because it attracts a huge number of people, including spammers. Most of my friends found their apartment through Idealista, but here are some alternative spots to check too.
Real estate listing aggregators
Real Estate Agency websites
Choosing to work with real estate agents
I talked with five real estate agents during my search. I told them what I was looking for and they said they’d send me anything they find. None of them sent me anything that resulted in a visit, but I was pretty picky. I have two real estate agents I’d highly recommend in the Lisbon area if you’re looking, let me know.
The possible downside of working with a real estate agent is that the property owner’s agent will have to split their commission with your agent. If you work by yourself, their agent receives the whole commission. I noticed that some listings specifically said that they only work with individuals, probably for this reason.
My advice is to work with a real estate agent if you’re not able to go on tours yourself or don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to the search, otherwise you can tell a few of them what you’re looking for and see if they can find you anything, but do your own research too. They will go on tours with you to help inspect the apartment and act as translator, but my guess is that most people don’t actually need the hand holding.
Setting up visits
Every morning I spent 1-2 hours going to each site, applying location and price filters, sorting by most recent to see if anything new was published. When I did find something new, I’d immediately call them. If they answered, I’d set up a time to visit. If they didn’t answer (the majority), I’d save the number in my phone and message them on Whatsapp saying I had just called them and was interested in setting up a visit. I made sure to include a link to the apartment since most agents manage multiple properties at a time.
Visiting apartments
Once I scheduled a visit, I texted the agent the morning of to confirm and made an effort to arrive early. This had two advantages: 1. Oftentimes my plan to be early resulted in being right on time due to traffic, bus schedules, etc. and 2. When I did actually arrive early, I could walk around the neighborhood and get a feel for it.
Half of the visits I did in Portuguese and half in English, depending on the level of English of the real estate agent.
5 question I asked during visits
1. How long have you been a real estate agent? What do you like about it?
Becoming their friend is important because the owner will ask them about the prospective tenants when making a decision on whose offer to accept.
2. Is it okay if you take a video so you can remember and compare it?
I didn’t think that I’d ever look back at the videos, but I actually did quite a lot so it’s worth taking good ones.
3. How long has the property been on the market for and how many tours have you given so far?
This gives you a sense of how quickly you’d need to move on it if you like it.
4. When is the earliest move-in date?
If it’s a month or more, you know that you won’t be able to negotiate the price much because they can wait until they receive an offer that they want.
5. What is the owner looking for in an offer?
You’ll likely email them your offer. Some agents will tell you how many months of rent they’re asking for the deposit, some will say that it’s up for you to decide. The legal maximum I believe is 2 months in advance, 2 months deposit, but because the market is so competitive, some tenants offer more. Also ask how long the owner wants the lease to be and the move-in date.
5 things to check during visits
1. Are the windows double-paned and do you see mold anywhere?
Double-paned windows are often framed with white metal. You can tell they're double-paned by putting your fingers on either side and seeing if they touch. Double-pained windows are great because they help with insulation, noise, and preventing mold, which is a common problem in Portuguese apartments due to the humidity and lack of ventilation.
2. What is the neighborhood and neighbors like?
Can you see yourself becoming part of the community?
3. What’s the closest metro and bus station?
Look up how long it would take you to get to your friends' houses and favorite restaurants.
4. Is there is anything missing?
The apartment I ended up going with didn't have an oven, but on the tour I asked about it and they said they’d buy me one.
Submitting an offer
Once you decide that you want to make an offer, it’s important to act quickly before they decide to go with someone else. I had most of the elements of my offer packet prepared beforehand.
- Introduction letter (Carta de Motivação)
I introduced myself, why I moved to Lisbon, my living situation (I’m single, don’t smoke, don’t have kids or pets), my work situation, and what I’ve included in the rest of the offer packet. I translated it to Portuguese using DeepL and had a Portuguese friend proofread it. She only made one change so it seems like DeepL is pretty solid. - Offer
How many months of rent paid in advance
How many months of rent as a deposit
Monthly rent
Lease duration
Move-in date - NIF, passport, work contract, 3 months pay slips
- Guarantor
A guarantor is a Portuguese citizen who the property owner can go to if the tenant can’t pay rent. I had a few Portuguese friends who I maybe could have asked, but I didn’t know them super well, so I decided not to. One apartment that I almost put an offer for told me that the guarantor doesn’t have to be a Portuguese citizen so I used my dad, but in most cases they need to be Portuguese. Many places will accept an extra month or two of rent in advance in place of a guarantor.
Signing the lease
The real estate agent called me a few days after I submitted my offer and told me he was going to send me the lease to review. I asked him how negotiable the rent was, and he told me that the other prospective tenant offered 150€ over the asked monthly rent, but they chose me because I was one person instead of a couple. I believed him because the place was amazing and the rent was very fair. I think being from the U.S. also is an advantage, I’ve heard stories of landlords having prejudices towards people from Brazil and Asia.
I read the lease, called the real estate agent with a few questions like how things will be taken care of if they break and confirmed that they would purchase an oven. I summarized what we talked about and put it in an email, asking him to confirm that the owner agrees too. Then we set up a time to sign the lease with the owner.
The real estate agent, owner, and her husband were already in the apartment when I arrived. The owner is an older Portuguese woman who lived in the apartment around 40 years ago. Her husband is from England and Rhodesia and was super nice; he came over earlier this week to lend me his drill and ended up helping me install shelves for 8 hours and taking me out to eat chocos — grilled cuttlefish.
After we signed, I sent a bank transfer with the money, got the keys, and started obsessively planning my IKEA visit.
Good luck, may you find a magical mold-free apartment, and remember the old saying that applies to both rush hour and housing shortages: “You are not stuck in traffic. You are the traffic.”