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Twenty-one years in, and the question has changed.
When I started selling property out here, people asked about sunshine, a pool, and how far it was to the nearest golf course. Simple brief. Nearly always the same brief. These days the first question is more personal and a good deal harder to answer well: how will we actually live there — in January as well as August, with the children or the dog or the business that still has to run from a spare room?
That shift tells me more than any market statistic could.
Quinta do Lago and Vale do Lobo are still the benchmarks, and the figures show why. Engel & Völkers' Market Report Portugal 2025–2026 found that international buyers account for around 80% of purchasers in both resorts. Nobody needs me to point at them.
The part of the Algarve I know best sits at the eastern end, and it's a different proposition entirely. Low-density. Traditional in a way that hasn't been staged for anybody's benefit. Fuseta is a working fishing village that swells every summer and empties again in September, and prices there have climbed steadily for years without the place ever becoming fashionable — which, in my opinion, makes it a hotspot that still hasn't been discovered. Tavira has the history, and more churches than you'd expect for its size.
Then there's Cabanas.
In 2003 I sold a property there for around €100,000. Today the luxury developments near the waterfront reach €700,000. Different category of home, obviously — but it gives you the shape of what has happened to a town where most buildings are still under three storeys.
Benamor Golf is close by: eighteen holes, designed by Sir Henry Cotton, open since 2000. The restaurants are good and they're walkable. The promenade was refurbished a few years back, so public money has gone into the place, and yet it has somehow kept the feel of a small fishing town rather than a resort that outgrew itself.
Everything is within walking distance, you're surrounded by nature, and there's a little train that saves you the walk when you'd rather not.
I realise that last one sounds like a small thing. It isn't. The buyers who are happiest here ten years on are almost always the ones who can leave the car where it is.
Here's where I see buyers come unstuck, and the rules moved in 2026.
Portugal now charges non-resident buyers of residential property a flat 7.5% transfer tax — IMT — under the Construir Portugal housing package. On a €300,000 home that's €22,500, with no tax-free band underneath it. Stamp duty at 0.8% adds another €2,400 on top. Some guides suggest that buyers who become Portuguese tax residents within two years may avoid the flat rate, which is precisely why you want advice early rather than at the deed.
After that come the legal, notary and registry fees, and then the costs that never stop: annual property tax, community fees, insurance, maintenance.
One more thing worth saying plainly, because people do still plan around it: residential property has not qualified for the Golden Visa since October 2023. Buy here because you want to be here.
On risk, my advice hasn't shifted in twenty years. Check the developer's history. Verify licences and permits before you sign anything. Understand exactly what happens if an off-plan build runs late. Use an independent Portuguese lawyer — independent being the word that matters.
Gross yields in the eastern Algarve typically run between 4% and 10%, depending on the facilities of the development or the property. That's a wide range, and it's wide for a reason.
Short-term letting needs an Alojamento Local licence. As of April 2026 new applications remained broadly open across the Algarve, but municipalities can set containment zones, so check the rules for the exact address rather than the general area, and never assume a licence transfers with the property.
Then treat every projection you're shown as gross, because that's what it is. Ask for real occupancy and real rates from comparable properties over the past two or three years. Take out management, cleaning, utilities, tax, insurance and community fees. Run the numbers again at lower occupancy.
If a purchase only works at the most optimistic occupancy, it doesn't work.
I don't believe luxury property should be bought with a quick flip in mind, and I say that as someone who has watched a fair few people try.
My prediction — and it is a prediction, not a promise — is that prices in the eastern Algarve, and in Cabanas particularly, will rise over the coming decade. What keeps a home attractive to the next buyer is unglamorous and consistent: location, build quality, energy efficiency, a sensible layout, a clean paper trail.
Price it realistically from day one. Plan to hold.
The buyers who are happiest a decade on are usually the ones who knew every cost on the day they signed. This end of the Algarve rewards exactly that kind of patience.
Chris White founded Ideal Homes Portugal in 2012 and has spent twenty-one years in international property across twenty-three countries.