Browse property for sale in the Algarve and the first thing you notice is that Portuguese listings are written in shorthand. A house is a T3. The ground floor is the r/c. Two different floor areas appear, and they never match. None of this is hidden, but it isn’t explained either, and a British buyer used to bedrooms, square feet and freehold can misread a listing in an afternoon. A short glossary will save a lot of confusion.
Bedrooms and the T system
Portuguese estate agents describe homes with a T followed by a number. The number is the count of bedrooms, and living rooms aren’t counted. A T0 is a studio, a T1 has one bedroom, a T2 has two, and so on. Sometimes you will see T2+1 or T3+1, which means an extra room, such as a box room or a study, that may or may not meet the standard for a bedroom. Ask to see it, and ask whether it has a window.
Two areas, and a plot
Most listings give a gross area, the área bruta, and a usable area, the área útil. Gross includes the thickness of walls, balconies and sometimes shared parts of a building. Usable is the floor area you could actually fill with furniture. The gap between the two can be large, and comparing a gross figure on one listing with a usable figure on another will make a property look better or worse than it is. For a house, you will also see a plot area, the terreno, and it is worth checking whether the land is a single plot or several.
Floors, house types and other vocabulary
The ground floor is the r/c, short for rés-do-chão. The floor above is the 1.º andar, then the 2.º andar, which follows the same numbering British buyers are used to. A moradia is a house, usually detached or semi-detached. A quinta is a country estate or a smallholding, and it may have more land than house. A ruína is exactly what it sounds like, and the word gets used honestly, which can be refreshing.
Documents that matter
Three documents come up in nearly every purchase. The licença de utilização is the habitation licence and confirms the building may legally be lived in. The certidão permanente is the land registry extract, and shows who owns the property and whether any mortgage or charge is registered against it. The caderneta predial is the tax record, which gives the official description and the property’s tax value. If an extension or a pool has been added, check that it appears on the paperwork and not only on the ground.
Fees and who does what
An independent lawyer of your own choosing is a better arrangement than relying on someone recommended by the seller. They check the documents, explain what each step means and attend the signing. In Portugal the buyer typically pays transfer tax and stamp duty before the deed is signed, along with notary and registration fees, so it helps to know the full list of costs early on instead of discovering them in the final fortnight.
A habit worth keeping
When a term is unfamiliar, ask. An estate agent who explains a listing patiently is usually one worth working with, and an answer that doesn’t hold up when you ask for it in writing is also worth knowing about before you commit. Keep a note of each term as you learn it, and by the third or fourth viewing the shorthand will read like plain English.
