Thibault Lassale Consultor Imobiliario IAD Lisboa

18/06/2026

A client of mine owns a flat in Lisbon. Good situation, no pressure to move. But when we sat down and looked at what selling would unlock, the conversation took a turn.

Lisbon is now averaging €5,900/m². That's a new record, according to Confidencial Imobiliário's April 2026 edition. Montijo sits well below that. Same river. Same view of the Tejo. A fraction of the price.

That's not just a number. For a family priced out of a 60m² flat in Lisbon, a project like Bay View in Montijo - new build, river views, starting at €234,000 - changes what's possible.

And my client isn't alone in doing this calculation.

The South Bank markets rose more than 30% year-on-year in Q1 2026, faster than Lisbon's own 14.8% growth. Moita led at 35.6%. Barreiro and Seixal both crossed 31%. Even Montijo, one of the more moderate performers in the group, posted 17.4%.

The demand is already moving. What's less clear is whether supply can follow.

Construction costs are now the single biggest obstacle for developers in Portugal - ahead of licensing for the first time in six years. And Confidencial Imobiliário's editorial makes a point worth sitting with: when supply stays structurally tight, a slowdown in transactions doesn't bring prices down. It can actually push them higher. Fewer deals, same scarcity, same upward pressure.

So the South Bank story isn't just about cheaper prices. It's about where genuine value still exists in a market where Lisbon's ceiling keeps rising and the mid-market supply gap keeps widening.

Are you seeing clients make this kind of move? Or is the hesitation still stronger than the numbers?

15/06/2026

Two very different days. One identical feeling. 🪂

Last week I jumped out of a plane with a fellow videoman. This week I sat in a room with IAD colleagues for a training straight from headquarters. The settings couldn't be more different - and yet I walked away from both with exactly the same thing.

Not a certificate. Not a technique.

A relationship.

Growth doesn't happen in isolation. It happens when you share the pressure, the learning, and the good moments too. In the air, you don't trust someone because they say the right things. You trust them because you've been through the same experience and come out the other side together. That trust isn't built in a briefing - it's built in the doing.

IAD works the same way. When people from different markets sit in the same room, compare notes, and train together, something shifts. It's not just knowledge transfer. It's the start of a network that actually means something.

Or rather, it's a reminder that the people around you are your real measure of progress. I don't grow by myself. I grow because of who I'm surrounded by - and whether I'm pushing them just as hard.

So whether it's 4,000 meters up or around a conference table, the question stays the same.

Are you surrounding yourself with people who make you better?

11/06/2026

Finding an affordable home in Portugal isn't hard because prices are too high. It's hard because the homes don't exist anymore.

At the start of 2026, available stock below €300,000 had fallen 31% year-on-year. Below €210,000? Down more than half. And demand hasn't dropped at all - homes priced between €90,000 and €180,000 were generating at least ten enquiries per listing in Q1 2026.

So you're not competing on price. You're competing on timing and access.

I covered Portugal's chronic under-supply last week - the real pressure was always about too few homes being built, not short-term rentals or foreign buyers. This data takes it further. By the time an affordable property appears online in Lisbon, where only 7% of listings sit below €300,000, you're already behind nine other buyers.

The only real answer I've found is relationships built before the need arises.

I don't cold call. I don't knock on doors. I build long-term connections with clients and referral partners, slowly, over years. A family from San Francisco bought their first apartment through me five years ago, a second last year, and they're now considering a third. They don't search listings. They call me first. Or rather, by the time anything they'd want appears publicly, it's already gone.

Client loyalty is genuinely rare in Portugal - most buyers work with four or five agents at the same time. I only work with clients who commit to one dedicated agent. That's not a rule I invented to protect my time. It's what actually makes the early access possible.

Perhaps the most honest thing I can say to anyone looking for an affordable property right now: the search doesn't start on a listing platform. It starts with who you already trust.

Have you found that personal connections are opening doors that online searches simply can't in this market?

05/06/2026

Portugal has 5.9 million homes. Short-term rentals account for roughly 90,000 active licences. And somehow, AL is still treated as the main cause of the housing crisis.

That doesn't add up.

The real pressure comes from chronic under-supply, slow permitting, and a public housing stock that covers around 2% of homes - compared to 20-30% in the Netherlands or Austria. Those are the structural problems. They're just harder to fix than cancelling a licence.

What I find interesting is that Portugal actually has more regulation in place than most people realise. A national registration system has existed since 2015. Municipalities already have tools to create containment zones based on local housing data. The framework isn't missing - it's just not always used proportionally.

And the geography matters here. Around 75% of active AL registrations are outside Lisbon and Porto. The Algarve is the largest AL region in the country. So applying the same rule to a street in Bairro Alto and a village in the interior doesn't make sense. It's the same policy mistake in reverse - broad strokes where you need a scalpel.

I work with clients who ask about this regularly. Someone considering a Lisbon apartment as a seasonal base, working remotely for a couple of months and renting it out the rest of the year - that's a legitimate use case. I don't promise specific rental returns because AL regulations have shifted every few years and I won't pretend otherwise. What I can say is that the sector isn't going away. It supports small property owners, local businesses, and a tourism industry that actually matters to the Portuguese economy.

Or rather, the question was never whether to regulate. It's whether regulation follows data or just follows pressure.

What do you think - should AL rules be set nationally, or left entirely to each municipality to decide?

18/05/2026

While the overall number of new companies in Portugal fell 4.6% in the first four months of 2026, construction went the other way - up 7.7%.

That's not a small deviation. It's a signal worth paying attention to.

According to Informa D&B data cited by idealista/news, construction was one of only two sectors - alongside IT - where new business creation actually grew. The driver? Sustained demand from housing, urban rehabilitation, and infrastructure investment.

I've been watching this market closely. A few weeks ago I wrote about how Portugal's housing market had fewer sales but higher prices - transactions down 9.4%, prices up 21.1% year-on-year. Or rather, supply wasn't keeping up with demand. This new data suggests the market is responding.

More construction companies means more capacity entering the sector. Perhaps not fast enough to close the gap immediately, but the direction is right.

It's not a solved problem. It's a market starting to adjust.

The real question isn't whether demand for housing in Portugal is real. It's whether this wave of new construction businesses can translate into actual units delivered - and at what pace.

What do you think is the biggest bottleneck right now: financing, permitting, or skilled labour?

Source: idealista/news
https://www.idealista.pt/news/imobiliario/construcao/2026/05/11/75379-criacao-de-empresas-setor-da-construcao-cresce-7-7-e-lidera

07/05/2026

25/04/2026

What a way to close another amazing real estate event in Lisbon!

A great moment to celebrate the energy, professionalism, and team spirit of the IAD network.

Events like this are always a powerful reminder of what makes our ecosystem so special: sharing, ambition, trust, and the opportunity to grow together — locally and internationally.

Proud to be part of this team and grateful for everyone who contributed to making this event such a success.

Here’s to the next one! 🚀

20/04/2026

In golf, you do not improve by swinging harder first.
You improve by working on your technique.

Business is no different.

The driving range is where you repeat, adjust, and build the right habits before expecting better results on the course. In real estate, the same logic applies: before accelerating, you need the right foundations.

That is why training matters. That is why mentoring matters.

At IAD, the online university and the support of a mentor are there to help people grow the right way: learn first, practice, improve, then accelerate.

Real progress is built on solid basics, not on impatience.

First technique. Then speed.
First foundations. Then results.