The Agency Portugal, a real estate brokerage specialised in the luxury segment, arrived in the country in 2023 and quickly became one of the most active international brands in Portugal’s premium market. Two years later, the balance could not be more expressive. In an interview with idealista/news, Ayres Neto, Managing Partner of The Agency Portugal, describes a sector in clear expansion and a demand that continues to diversify.
Without beating around the bush, the executive dispels common misconceptions about the segment in which he operates. “Our segment is luxury,” he says, stressing, however, that the concept is broader than many people think: “Sometimes luxury is not a price… it is an added value to that property,” and “luxury has a lot to do with the ‘wow factor’.”
Portugal, according to the manager, continues to attract multiple nationalities such as Brazilians, Americans, Canadians, Britons and Nordics. But Ayres Neto rejects the idea that the Portuguese luxury market survives only on foreign investors. “There is a fallacy in thinking that Portuguese people do not buy luxury properties,” he states. “They do buy and even invest heavily in off-plan developments.”
With an increasingly diversified, “very solid” market and sustained demand, the executive believes that Portugal will continue to establish itself as a destination of excellence for living and investing. And he explains why in this interview.
Luxury housing
The Agency
Two years after The Agency arrived in Portugal (in 2023), how do you assess the luxury real estate market in the country? What were the most striking transformations observed during this period and how do you anticipate 2026?
The evolution of the real estate market in Portugal in the luxury segment to which I dedicate myself has been impressive. From 2023 to 2024 our numbers grew significantly, and from 2024 to 2025 as well. The outlook for 2026 is for even greater growth. There are many Brazilians coming to Portugal, many Americans as well, and many people from Northern Europe. So, the market outlook is absolutely fantastic.
The Agency reached the milestone of 100 active consultants in Portugal this year. What is the strategy behind this accelerated team growth and how has this strengthened your presence in the market? What assessment do you make of your business in 2025 and what objectives do you have at a corporate level for next year?
The year 2025 was extraordinary in every aspect. The Agency grew, reached 100 employees across the entire country and this is a very significant milestone. It is an extremely media-driven brand, yes, and that helps us attract highly qualified collaborators, as well as clients and sellers who seek us out because they know the brand has international reach.
We have consultants from 30 different countries who speak 22 languages. We are extremely proactive. We reach markets all over the world. Our goal is increasingly to train our team, to prepare our team to deliver quality to our clients. What we call White Glove Service is a concern of ours from beginning to end.
Ayres Neto
Ayres Neto, Managing Partner of The Agency Portugal
Credits: Gonçalo Lopes | idealista/news
The media association with Marcello Antony has brought visibility to the brand. What impact has this relationship had on your business in terms of client acquisition or brand valuation?
Marcello Antony is a friend, someone with whom I have a wonderful relationship and who brings us immense visibility. But visibility alone is nothing. We have to deliver. With Marcello, we reach, for example, Portuguese-speaking markets, but not only. Globo soap operas are broadcast in Eastern European countries and Spanish-speaking countries. And all of that helps us find clients wherever they may be.
If I have a listing, if I have a property in Portugal, it is my obligation to find the buyer wherever they are. And Marcello is excellent at what he does, both in promoting properties and in execution. Today he is a fully qualified consultant to represent anyone’s property.
Was it through Marcello Antony that The Agency gained more visibility or did you already have it?
In reality, it is the sum of several aspects. Marcello joined us around the middle of last year and we already had a great deal of visibility. We are a company that has a series, classified as a reality show, on Netflix, Buying Beverly Hills, and we are an international luxury real estate company in the United States, operating above 10 million dollars. We are the number one company in the country, in the United States, which is the largest real estate market in the world. And when we arrived in Portugal, it was the same thing. I started with 15 consultants and today I have multiplied that by six in basically 30 months.
Obviously, Marcello Antony brought exposure, especially in Brazil and also here in Portugal. But we already had very strong media exposure worldwide due to the Netflix series, which has two seasons.
And did your clients seek you out for that reason, because of Marcello’s mediation and also because of the Netflix series, or were you chosen without any specific criteria?
It is a combination of factors, because when I started, there was a lot of talk about working only with buyers, because that generated international contacts. But those who have a property to sell look for those who have buyer contacts, and the goal is common. So much so that today we have an inventory of 4 billion euros in properties, because people who sell properties want companies like mine, with international reach and the ability to reach buyers. And fundamentally, it is a partnership. Someone gives me a property to sell and I have to find a buyer. That is my mission.
What are your strategies to differentiate yourselves from your competitors?
I like to say that I am neither better nor worse. I am different. These are different situations and different ways of working. There is a term in Brazilian marketing called capilarisation. I have to reach the client wherever they are. That is proactivity.
I lived 20 years in the United States and also in Brazil, in São Paulo, which made me extremely proactive. If I receive a real estate mediation contract, it is my mission to find a buyer for that property. And I have to find that buyer wherever they are. That is my method. There are other methods to reach the same point, depending on how agencies operate. And I think my method works, because if it didn’t, I wouldn’t have grown in this way in 30 months.
“The Portuguese real estate market is today so solid, so strong, with the sustainable growth of the last ten years, that people see they can invest safely and that their money will generate returns.”
When you arrived, the buyer profile was mainly luxury buyers, national and international. Has this profile changed over these two years?
There are many Portuguese buyers. There is a fallacy in thinking that Portuguese people do not buy. Portuguese people buy luxury properties and generally even invest heavily in off-plan projects, which may take two years to be delivered. They invest because they understand the potential, they are local, they understand the economy and they understand exactly how and where the market is evolving.
Then there are many Brazilians, without any doubt. Portugal is an extraordinary country for Brazilians, because of the ease of language, safety, infrastructure, schools, the healthcare system — everything that Portugal offers to a Brazilian buyer.
Americans are increasingly coming to the country, also largely due to Portugal’s stability, knowing that they come here and have all the conditions for a very high quality of life with everything the country has to offer. And finally, Canadians, people from Northern Europe and England. There are so many nationalities interested in a country that is territorially small and small in population, which causes prices to rise.
And in terms of second homes, are there more Portuguese people buying second homes in the luxury segment or not?
Yes, not only buying but also investing. Either to place a property on the rental market or because they understand that in that region the property will appreciate significantly. The Portuguese real estate market is today so solid, so strong, with the sustainable growth of the last ten years, that people see they can invest safely and that their money will generate returns.
Luxury housing
The Agency
How do you assess the changes to the Golden Visa programme? Did they have an impact on the market?
There is an expression in English that has no translation into Portuguese, which is Much Ado About Nothing. Which means the following: when someone turns something that is not very important into something gigantic. If we rewind, Golden Visas existed for perhaps 12 or 13 years. During that period, if I am not mistaken, 10 to 11 thousand were granted, and not all were for property purchases. If we think mathematically, that comes to 800 or 900 properties per year. Portugal is small, but 800 or 900 properties per year in Portugal is nothing. That is not enough.
The last time I checked, there were around 300 thousand real estate transactions per year in Portugal. So we are talking about 800 versus 300 thousand. If a person puts 0.3% diesel or petrol in their tank, the gauge will not move. In other words, foreigners continue to arrive without Golden Visas, properties are becoming more expensive, and why? Because there are still D2 and D7 residence visas, there are Brazilians with dual nationality, which are a very large number, Americans who also have dual nationality, and a series of other situations. So in reality, the Golden Visa is a fraction of a fraction. Therefore, the impact was zero; it did not affect anything.
What impact might the current international political, monetary and economic context have on the luxury real estate market, in terms of risks and opportunities?
Portugal is a Safe Haven, it is a safe place. An individual who is close to the Ukraine-Russia war, living in countries such as Poland, the Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, feels uncomfortable not knowing whether the war will reach them. And a young person aged 30, 35, 40 or 45, who is even doing well in their IT company, begins to look at Portugal and thinks, “I am still in Europe, but I am far from this.” Currently, there are many remote workers coming from all over the world.
In the United States, which today lives in a situation of highly exacerbated political conflict, very strong opinions on both sides and a lot of discord within families, people see Portugal as a Safe Haven. In Brazil, which is a country with problems of violence in large cities and other conflicts, the population looks at Portugal as a way to give their children an opportunity, to have a fantastic education.
Portugal has very good public and private education compared to Brazil. It has many international schools where you can place your children, and children leave school speaking three or four languages and already prepared to enter a university anywhere in the world. And this is seen by Brazilians as something very positive. And we are talking about a country of 220 million people. If 0.1% of the Brazilian population decides that Portugal is a good option and decides to come here, that is 220,000 people. That is a lot of people. So it creates constant waves of immigration that cannot be controlled with the stroke of a government pen. People will continue to want to come.
This situation obviously creates a constant rise in prices. The rental market has already improved with government measures, but when it comes to buying and selling properties, it will not change, because many foreigners continue to arrive and join Portuguese buyers who already purchase luxury properties.
The State Budget for 2026 (OE2026) includes a set of housing measures: public investment, tax changes for landlords and tenants, and reinforcement of housing supply. How do you assess these measures? And do you think they can also be relevant in the luxury real estate market?
All measures are palliative and produce very little in terms of practical resolution. I believe that, for example, to reduce housing tension in the lower segment, say properties under 350,000 euros, a compensation system would need to be created. In Brazil, for example, there are large companies that build luxury developments and generally provide compensation within a programme called Minha Casa, Minha Vida, which is for the more popular segments. So, if a company is going to build a Pininfarina, Porsche or Lagerfeld tower, or whatever it may be, it has to have an agreement with the government as a form of compensation for being in a relatively nearby area.
There are studies that came out recently on artificial intelligence, showing that the accumulation of wealth in the world over the next 5, 10, 15 years will be exponentially greater than it already is. So, developers want to build in the luxury segment, because they will receive a higher value per square metre and know that it will sell relatively quickly. That is why I think a system also needs to be created for the working classes.
You mentioned artificial intelligence, which is currently everywhere, in all segments. How can AI help you in real estate brokerage?
100%. The big question in real estate brokerage is: how do I generate leads for my company? All real estate brokerage companies have this concern — any CEO, any broker, any real estate consultant.
We have already been working for some time and are achieving extraordinary results. AI can segment and discover whatever you want. For example, it is possible to know that Mr João da Silva likes the Príncipe Real area and is looking for a two-bedroom apartment with a balcony. Through this tool, it is possible to reach that information. In other words, there is no need to use tactics that were used in the past, such as calling 1,000 people in one day or knocking on 50 doors. At The Agency, we do not use those methods. We use more modern mechanisms to reach the client and position them for that specific opportunity or, in some cases, find a client who wants a property in a certain region and whom I can represent in the purchasing process.
Artificial Intelligence in the real estate sector
Freepik
AI facilitates your work, but it will never replace a consultant — you only use it as a support tool, correct?
Yes, because the human factor is essential. It is not possible to have a real estate brokerage company and believe that artificial intelligence alone will solve problems. It will not. Buying a property involves emotion. It involves opening the kitchen cupboard and imagining the pots and plates. It involves opening the wardrobe and imagining the suits and the woman’s dresses — the whole process is emotion.
The process of selling a property is an emotional process. Obviously, it involves reason, obviously it involves a series of other factors because it is a very high value, but it cannot be replicated through artificial intelligence.
To conclude, what do you consider to be the main strengths of Portuguese luxury real estate today and, on the other hand, the greatest risks?
I believe that the greatest risk in this sector is losing the connection with reality. Portugal still has a lot of room to grow in this sector and in all other areas, and I do not like to see luxury becoming disconnected from reality. When someone owns a property worth tens of millions of euros and other people, who are hardworking, honest, fulfil their obligations, cannot buy a 200,000-euro property, this disconnect between luxury and the reality of everyday people needs to be reduced.
Luxury continues to generate revenue. Foreigners come and spend money, they stimulate the economy. I know Portugal very well and I know what it was like in 2011, 2012, 2013. Obviously, no one wants to go back, but at the same time there need to be solutions so that the Portuguese population can have higher incomes, through a progressive increase in the average salary, and have conditions to acquire properties at affordable prices. That is my concern — not luxury. My concern is the overall context of the country.
Luxury homes