Finding an Apartment

Not that easy...

Jan 18, 2022

We wrote before about renting an apartment in Portugal. You may recall our agent, Elizabeth, even had to find us temporary digs when the apartment we rented was flooded days before we were to move in. (If you want to see what 2300€ gets you in Cascais, click here.) So when we went in search for an apartment in Vila Real de Santo Antonio (VRSA) we thought we knew what to expect…

In case we miss NYC, there is a wall mural of the skyline.

Listings

We began our search in early November looking through listings on Idealista and realtor sites. Viewing listings on Idealista comes with certain challenges:

First, multiple agents may list the same property. So while there appears to be 20 apartments in your defined area there may really be only 12.
Second, and compounding the issue above, agents will provide different information for exactly the same listing. (Little, unimportant things like price or square meters may be different.)
Finally, don’t assume the property is where the dot appears on the map. It may show a dot in the center of town and the listing may be in the outskirts. Often the listing agent shows their office address rather than the property address.

We also called the agent who had sold us the building and asked that he be on the lookout for a T3 or T2 dog-friendly apartment or house in town, ideally with 2 bathrooms, storage, and/or garage for our bikes, and lots of closets. Finally, a friend provided us with a contact he had found on Facebook that was a “property manager” in VRSA. I called him, Moisa, and told him we would be in VRSA the last week in November and would like to see anything he might have that met our requirements. We agreed I would call him one week prior to confirm appointments.

Idealista map of available apartments…but are they?

Slim Pickings

I went onto the Idealista website this morning and did some research before writing this post. (Clearly, I have too much time on my hands…that is because Denise is doing all the packing!) After eliminating those listings that appear to be duplicated there seem to be 10 apartment listings in town. Four one-bedroom, four two-bedroom, and two three-bedroom apartments…no houses. In case you are wondering, the average rental prices listed today are:

One-Bedroom - 560€/month
Two-Bedroom - 885€/month
Three-Bedroom - 875€/month (reflects unfurnished)

Limiting the search to our requirements there are four listings…but in actuality, there is only one apartment that is unfurnished.

But wait…there is another important consideration. Half of the apartments listed are for off-season rentals (October through May). For example, within the description for a T2 listed for 600€/month it said this:

In July 500€ week. In August 600€ week. In September 400€ week. From October possibility of long term lease 600€ month.

The kitchen in our new apartment has a washing machine but not a dishwasher.

Simple Math

We were warned about the seasonal rental situation by our realtor. And as our most optimistic estimate is that we could possibly be in the new house by January 2023, we needed a one year rental. But, as we are coming from Cascais where rents are much more, it didn’t seem to be a big problem to me. To me, it was some very simple math. Let’s take the example above. Add the weekly seasonal rent x 4.2, to the monthly off-season rent x 9 and divide by twelve...you get about 950€/month. Assuming you are talking to a reasonable human being that knows that historically it isn’t even rented for three or four months in the offseason, you probably will be able to negotiate an even lower rate. When our realtor used this approach with a few property owners that had not yet secured seasonal rental agreements for 2022, it worked.

More Math

As it turns out, our buddy Moisa also had two apartments to show us…a T2 and a T3. We preferred the T3 because he agreed to remove the bunk beds in the smallest bedroom so we could use it as a walk-in closet, and it had a storage area in the basement for our bikes. 5 blocks from our future construction site, 1.5 blocks from the river and a park for Onix, and only 1000€/month. “We’ll take it!”

But then the next morning I woke up with a terrifying thought. I recalled Moisa explaining that we would have to use portable heaters in the winter…but what about air conditioning. I looked at all the photos he sent me again. Yikes, no units in the upper walls. I quickly called Moisa and confirmed my fear. He explained that the owner had several apartments in town and slowly was installing the heater/air conditioners, but hadn’t gotten to this unit yet.

My simple math mind jumped into gear. The following is my recollection of our conversation:

“Well, what if I was willing to pay more each month if he installed a unit in the livingroom and bedroom?,” I asked.
“You would be willing to do that?”, Moisa replied.
“Yes,” I responded. “Do you think if we paid 200€ more…i.e. 1200€ per month he might be able to install the units before we moved in? Would that be fair?”
“Let me ask him.”

A few hours later, Moisa called us back. The owner had said yes, and he was sending the rental agreement. Oh, and by the way, the rent would be only 1100€/month.

Final Note: I wrote this post on the 10th of January, as we are traveling to VRSA this coming Friday. We have meetings with the kitchen designer and our architect and are moving one car-load of things down. (It is amazing what you can collect in one year!) Our buddy Victor (the driver that got us from the airport to our first place, and helped us move to Cascais) is helping us with the rest of the stuff (e.g. our electric bikes won’t fit in our car) on the 25th. I’ll let you know once we get settled if there are any surprises.