The Portuguese real estate market

The Portuguese real estate market has for long seen a very stable and positive growth due to several reasons. Among other things, they have numerous encouraging and inviting offers, especially for foreigners to invest in the property market. One of the most well-known benefits is the Golden Visa program where non-EU citizens can qualify for a Golden Visa residence permit if they invest in a property above a certain value. Furthermore, the property prices in the country are affordable, and the quality of life is high. For these reasons, Portugal managed to get through the pandemic quite uninjured compared to other countries.

At the beginning of 2022 however, there will be changes to the Golden Visa scheme, removing the offer in the big cities such as Lisbon and Porto to increase the foreign investment in the low-density areas. The hope is to spread the demand across all of Portugal.

Increasing demand for Proptech

As a consequence of the continuous positive growth in the real estate market, the need for PropTech and digital marketing is naturally increasing, correlating with the rapid development of technology. This is especially important as such a big part of the income in the real estate market is from foreign investors, which ultimately means that digital marketing and the use of AI is the key to reaching the right people.

ERA Portugal has decided on the market-leading solution from HomeKey for their digital marketing activities, and hence consolidated their position as an innovative frontrunner in the Portuguese real estate market. With a customer-first approach, ERA Portugal’s interests are well aligned with those of HomeKey, by focusing on serving their home seller customers with superior value through market expertise, fact-driven insight, and dedicated customer service. With ERA Portugal being at the forefront of the digital transformation in Portugal, this partnership will ensure that all digital marketing needs for both modern and traditional property sellers are met - and exceeded.

We have spoken to Mariana Coimbra, the Marketing Director of ERA Portugal, about their mission and how HomeKey’s platform will help nourish their position as innovation leaders in the Portuguese real estate market.

Why did you decide to use an automated marketing platform for your second-hand homes?

ERA means Electronic Realty Associates, but it might as well simply mean innovation. In 1972, we disrupted the real estate market by introducing the fax machine. 50 years later, innovation and technology are still at our core. This automated marketing platform will be an extra tool to deliver on our mission, both online and offline - to match the right house with the right person.

Indeed, a successful marketing strategy nowadays ought to be omnichannel, with a clear national strategy and local implementations. This platform will allow us to maintain the strong and coherent communication we are proud to have as a brand, which is a clear point of difference in the Portuguese market. What’s more, it will allow us to democratize digital marketing on the ERA network at a local level, making it easily accessible to all agency offices and markets, and assuring that every campaign can thrive with a single click.

What are you hoping to achieve by using HomeKey's platform?

By using the HomeKey platform, we are hoping to carry out the massive digitalization which has been in place at the ERA Portugal network and to transfer it onto our local marketing activities. On the other hand, this will give us an additional tool to better market a more premium segment of second-hand homes, reinforcing our strength in the mass market and beyond. Lastly, the data we will gather daily will provide more analytics and insights to help us make better marketing decisions over time, both locally and nationwide.

To conclude, this partnership will support our position as leaders within innovation in the Portuguese real estate market, and we are very excited for the impact it will have on listings, recruitment, lead generation, and overall customer satisfaction.

“Like ERA Portugal, we believe it is in the intersection between great tools and great service that digital transformation truly emerges, and here at HomeKey we are very excited to join forces with this well-known brand, starting a successful partnership together.”

— Amir Folkestad Habhab, former CEO at Marketer Real Estate Technologies (now HomeKey)