Source: Freepik Author: Redaction The topic of sustainability is becoming increasingly talked about, especially in the property sector , and the growing concern for sustainable homes has also given a boost to the issue of design. To have a house with a sustainable design, youll need to invest with the long term in mind . In other words, youll have to put together the means to realise the link between energy efficiency, environmental efficiency and your wallet. Remember that its important to invest in durability, because design should be designed to last. Thats why you should favour recyclable materials rather than disposable ones. Invest in materials that are efficient and environmentally friendly, such as wood, hemp bricks and other options. LED lights, for example, are affordable, economical and come in a variety of designs to suit all tastes. A piece that is simple but extremely important in every room. Instead of buying decorative materials based solely on colour and shape (for example, rugs, towels, furniture, etc.), you could buy some that are made from recycled materials. Another suggestion could be to buy second-hand or even from ecological markets. Opt for minimalism in every room of the house: sometimes less is more. For example, instead of having a collection of 50 plates, why not have fewer? Its a question of judging according to your taste and what you want in each room. Whats more, its possible to have a beautiful home without having to fill it with lots of things . Solar panels for electricity and water heating are also great options. Theres a wide range on offer these days, so all you have to do is choose the ones you think will look best on your house. You can also place them in strategic locations or even integrate them into the design of the property itself. If you have a backyard, you can implement a rainwater harvesting system for irrigation. Note that its also important to take environmental efficiency into account: choose the most environmentally friendly building materials, from the walls to the roof. You can invest in wooden construction , as it gives a very beautiful and cosy finish, and you can and should choose beautiful and efficient appliances. An important point that influences the design of your home: ensure that the whole property has sun exposure during the day. The ideal would be in every room, but if you manage to have at least one or two, thats already very positive. The effect of the sun coming in through the windows is cosy and makes the house feel brighter. It also helps to heat the rooms and saves energy with natural lighting . Bet on good natural ventilation , good thermal insulation and double glazing , because it will make a difference and will greatly enhance the value of your property. Read more topics like this in SUPERCASA Notícias and transform your home: Passive Houses: what are they and what are the advantages? , Bioarchitecture: the trend thats here to stay
Source: SUPERCASA Author: Redaction In an increasingly hectic world, where stress and anxiety can be commonplace, having a haven of peace and tranquillity at home is a more common and desirable trend. In this scenario, a garden reveals itself as a private oasis , offering a series of benefits that go beyond aesthetic beauty. Thus, having a garden at home is a refuge for the body and mind, helping with relaxation and well-being, but also as an incentive for physical activities and connecting with nature , making it an excellent excuse to spend more time outdoors and enjoying these kinds of activities from the comfort of your own home. However, the most popular options, especially at a time when summer, popular saints and rising temperatures are approaching, are to use the garden for large gatherings with friends and family, and for themed parties that can bring all your loved ones together. On the other hand, having a garden can also represent a closer contact with nature, since you can use this space to grow fruit, vegetables and/or aromatic herbs, as well as an escape from your routine, making it your hobby. So dont let your chance of having a home like this pass you by and find the perfect place to live through the options we suggest at SUPERCASA . 2 bedroom flat in Oeiras, Lisbon - 355.000€ 2 bedroom villa in Ramalde, Porto - 420.000€ 3 bedroom triplex in Loures, Lisbon - 495.000€ 2 bedroom flat in Porto - 760.000€ Detached House 4 Bedrooms in Albufeira e Olhos de Água, Algarve - 890.000€ 2 bedroom villa in Grândola, Setúbal - 950.000€ Explore also: Leiria: a tour of the Wests most iconic district capital
Source: Freepik Author: Redaction If you have a real estate website, you know that its important to analyse data and try to obtain it in the most automated way, so that you dont waste hours looking for information. If the terms Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Tag Manager sound familiar, but you dont quite understand what theyre for, in this article youll discover that theyre very easy to use. 1 - Integrating Google Analytics with the Real Estate Website to analyse metrics Real estate agencies using eGO Real Estate CRM can have their Google Analytics account linked to their website . The eGO user can then analyse the results of their site and find out about visits and the profile of visitors by entering the ID code provided by Google Analytics on the eGO Real Estate site. Google Analytics is a free marketing tool from Google, which you can access by logging into your gmail account and accessing Analytics. You should know that setting up Analytics on your property website is very quick and simple! The eGO Real Estate CRM has a free tutorial available if you want to set it up yourself. If youd prefer someone to do it for you, you can contact the technical team and theyll take care of everything in no time. The advantages of Analytics are many: you can find out who visited your site, their age and region, which properties they searched for the most, what content they read the most, whether they consulted the site via computer or smartphone, and so on. By getting to know the public that visits your site and consults your property portfolio better and better, you can measure all this data correctly in the form of a beautiful, easy-to-understand report. This way, youll easily realise where you can improve and what actions you can take to turn these visitors into customers. 2 - Integrating Google Search Console with your property website to analyse performance Google Search Console is a free marketing tool from Google that allows real estate agents to index their eGO site in organic searches (e.g. from Google). Through this tool, Google analyses the performance of your site and how potential clients reach it. Like Analytics, you can access it from your gmail email account. eGO Real Estate provides its customers with a free tutorial to set it up simply. It also has a technical team to help you. The advantages are many: it helps your site stand out in search engines. Search Console analyses all the pages on your site. So, if a potential client searches for your property, theyll be able to find it through any of these pages. The aim is also to find out which pages are faulty and correct them so that they work and open in search engines. All these actions help to optimise your site, giving it more visibility. Whats more, you can see how often your site appears in searches and what keywords potential customers have used to find your page. 3 - Integrating Google Tag Manager with the Real Estate Website to analyse performance Google Tag Manager is a free marketing tool from Google that allows real estate agents to quickly include elements such as Google Analytics on their real estate website to monitor the performance of their website or a Chat feature to quickly communicate with their clients. The great advantage is that you can access metrics quickly and easily, and that you can communicate with clients at the click of a button and at any time. This opens the door to reaching more interested parties and achieving more results. In short, these three free tools can be easily integrated into your property website using an ID code. This option is possible in the eGO CRM by accessing your eGO Real Estate website. Are you interested? Read more: Learn about Smart SEO
Source: Freepik Author: Redaction Nowadays it is essential for any estate agency to have an up-to-date website that is well positioned in search engines. SEO is the set of strategies for optimising a website so that it achieves good organic positioning in search engines. Knowing how to do SEO well really does make all the difference to achieving good results, because your potential clients search for property on search engines. If your website appears on the first page, thats half the battle for your agency to be seen. If you feel that your day-to-day life is hectic with enquiries, visits, meetings, proposals and deeds and that you dont have much time to devote to improving your real estate agencys website, there are great solutions in this sector that allow you to integrate a beautiful, ready-to-use website with a technological component: Smart SEO. Smart SEO is a unique technology that helps you gain an advantage when it comes to indexing your website in Google search list positions, for example. Your site will be at a great advantage over other competitors who dont work on this part. This will help increase the number of visits to your site from potential customers. The next step is to invest in a good content strategy and the best strategy for publicising your property portfolio on the site, as this will generate more interest and visitors will interact more and stay longer on your site. This way, the likelihood of them filling in a form and leaving contact details is very high. So, to establish good SEO, you must have a good website. And to have a good website, you dont need to spend a lot of money. You can invest in a website with integration to your CRM, specifically an eGO Real Estate website. Smart SEO is an exclusive feature for eGO Real Estate CRM customers . They have a specialised team to help you with suggestions and solutions on what you can do to get more contact requests from your real estate website. Interested? Read more about: Do you have a business? Discover 3 marketing trends
Source: Freepik Author: Redaction As Eurostat announced last Friday, May 24, the number of people working in the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector has increased again, reaching almost 10 million people last year. According to the data collected, the increase corresponds to 4.8% of the total number of jobs in the European Union (EU), and in Portugal, the share of workers in this area, although it has also grown, is still below the Community average. According to the European Statistical Office, in 2023, 9.8 million people worked as ICT specialists in the European Union, which represents 4.8% of total employment. In recent years, there has been a trend of growth of ICT specialists, with the number of people working in this area having risen by 1.5 percentage points since 2013 and 0.2 percentage points compared to 2022 . In the EU countries where the highest incidence of workers in this sector was recorded, the highlight goes to Sweden, with 9.8% in 2023, followed by Luxembourg, with 8.0% and Finland, with 7.6%. On the other hand, the countries with the lowest percentage of workers employed in ICT are Greece, with 2.4%, Romania, with 2.5% and Slovenia, with 3.8%. In the case of Portugal, as Eurostat found, in 2023 only 4.5% of the workers were associated with the ICT sector as specialists , which, although representing an increase of 0.2 percentage points compared to the previous year, represents a figure below the average of the European Union countries . Still, Portugal can stand out for its percentage of women in the ICT sector, which corresponds to 20%, being above the EU average, which is 19.4%. However, there was a 0.3 percentage point decrease in the growth of this indicator, which grew by 0.5 percentage points on the Community average between 2022 and 2023. Stay for more topics like this: OECD had 0.4% growth of GDP in the 1st quarter of the year , Wages: 56% of Portuguese workers are dissatisfied and Strategic investments will have new incentive system
Source: Freepik Author: Redaction The end of the expiration date for access to extraordinary income support was approved on Monday, May 27, in the Council of Ministers, contemplating contracts with changes after March 15, 2023, provided they maintain the landlord, tenant and property . The expiration of this support was felt by several tenants, who suffered changes after the update of the rent value. There were several landlords who had renewed, change, replace contracts, signed before March 15, 2023, and in which the parties remained, but there was an acceleration of the rent values and lost the right to support , indicated the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, leaving the repair: if there was a contract before March 15 and if the same parts and the same property are kept , the support will remain in force. This extraordinary income support, which can reach 200 euros per month, covers the lease contracts concluded until March 15, 2023, which caused a flood of updates by landlords, which led to several eligible tenants losing their right to support, after the respective changes. After a series of complaints, and once the support arrived, at the end of April, to only about 223,200 tenants (-10 thousand compared to the beginning of the year), the Government was obliged to take measures to mitigate this situation, allowing the allocation of support to injured tenants, and that covers households with incomes up to the 6th IRS. The support, automatically awarded, will be in force until the end of 2028, subject to annual verification by the Government. Displaced workers benefit from incentives In addition to the approval of the end of the expiration date for access to extraordinary income support, a measure that encourages labor mobility was also approved. Thus, a displaced worker can deduct the cost of the new income, in the new location where he will be living, in relation to the property income obtained from the lease of his home. The Minister of the Presidency explained, at the end of the briefing of the Council of Ministers: when someone moves to work in a city or village more than 100 kilometers from the house and, when leaving, rents the house and will have to rent the house in the place where he will work, we allow the income received and the income being paid to be calculated together , he indicates, underlining that the rent paid is deducted from the rent received in the home of origin. In this way, the tax on the income obtained from the rental of the original property will be lower: the person who will have to pay the new rent and its cost will be deducted from the income of the house from which he lived. On maximum ceilings for this deduction, the minister left the indication that has as limit the value of the rent of the house where you leave. Stay for more topics like this: Coercive Lease: Measure is Revoked by the Government , Door 65 Young: Know the New Rules and Less 10,000 people received income support in April
Source: Freepik Author: Redaction According to António Leitão Amaro, Minister of the Presidency, at the end of the extraordinary Council of Ministers that took place on Monday, May 27, the public guarantee granted to young people up to 35 years for the purchase of the first home only goes up to 15% of the value of the purchase of the property, extinguishing after the first 15% of the credit has been paid. On this extension of the guarantee, and what happens in situations of default, Leitão Amaro indicated: the guarantee exists until the young person pays the first 15% [of the loan] to the bank and, after these 15%, the State leaves the equation. Thus, as explained by the Minister, the State will only be called to intervene with the payment of some amount in situations where there is a default on the loan payment , although this amount may have to be paid to the State, but also to the bank, since the client is not exempt from the responsibilities. The State is only called if the young person defaults and [in this case] the State acts as guarantor, creating an obligation between the parties , explained António Leitão Amaro, leaving the caveat as to the levels of credit default, which are reduced. Related: Interest rates: ECB predicts possible cut in June , Do you know how to calculate your yield rate? Find out more or Public guarantee age extension is being studied
Source: Freepik Author: Redaction The coercive lease measure was repealed on Monday, May 27, at the extraordinary Council of Ministers meeting. After being created under the More Housing Program , implemented by the previous Government, it now falls apart, according to Leitão Amaro, Minister of the Presidency, for not helping the investment and punishing private property. Today we reviewed, therefore, these forced leasing instruments, said the minister. The repeal of this measure had already been announced at the beginning of the month, since it is contemplated in the Construir Portugal Program, by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro and the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz. In this program, the deadline for the implementation of the revocation of the measure was ten days, and it was fulfilled with the delay of 7 days. This coercive lease measure provided, as announced last year by former Prime Minister António Costa and former Minister of Housing, Marina Gonçalves, that properties classified as discarded, for a minimum period of two years, were placed on the rental market. Through this measure, the State would emerge as a tenant, paying a rent to the owner, with a value 30% above the median fixed for the location where the property was inserted and based, also, the typology of it . Excluded from this measure were only the properties located in low density territories, not apartments, as well as the properties already foreseen in the original proposal. Many criticisms have arisen in the wake of this criticism, now leading to its repeal. Keep up with more current topics with the following suggestions: Commercial real estate: prices rise to a record 5.5%
Source: Freepik Author: Redaction Commercial property prices reached their highest increase since 2009 in 2023 , according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) released on Monday 27th May. As a result, commercial property prices, which have been rising at an average rate of 3.8 per cent for ten consecutive years, rose by a record 5.5 per cent in 2023 , 1.3 percentage points higher than in 2022. Since 2009, the trajectory of commercial property prices has been characterised by periods of oscillation, with recoveries and growth, and after a fall between 2009 and 2012, with a decrease of 8.6% in the latter year, the market gradually recovered again. After this fall, the trend reversed, with a positive leap in 2014, when the Commercial Property Price Index (IPPCom) rose by 3.7 per cent, with fluctuations until the end of 2023. In this way, 2023 is marked both by the historic 5.5 per cent rise in the IPPCom and by the less marked difference in growth rates between commercial and residential property since 2015 , with a difference of 2.7 percentage points. In historical terms, residential property has always shown stronger price growth than commercial property. However, given the 4.4 per cent slowdown in the growth rate of the Housing Price Index (IPHab), which grew by 8.2 per cent in 2023, it was possible to calculate a record increase of 12.6 per cent in 2022, due to the pace of growth in commercial property, which resulted in the sharpest difference between the two indices since 2015. Read on: Interest rates: ECB predicts possible cut in June , Spacious homes up to €300,000: six options at your fingertips
Source: Freepik Author: Redaction Property investors can often benefit from rising inflation . This is partly because the rising costs of building materials or labour put a brake on new construction, making existing properties more valuable. But many types of property also have direct links to inflation, as Shroders explains in a statement sent to SUPERCASA Notícias . Rental contracts in all types of sub-sectors can have explicit commitments to inflation-linked rent increases. In some cases, they have fixed brackets or rent reviews at specific times. All these factors give investors the opportunity to obtain a real return, i.e. higher than inflation . The specific factors of supply and demand are fundamental However, not all property assets are equal. Investors need to pay close attention to the specific type of property they are investing in. Some types of property - housing, hospitals - are essential. Others are benefiting from strong demand and limited supply, such as student accommodation or data centres, for example. We can assess the growth of data centres by looking at trends in energy consumption, which are certainly encouraging, to give an example of a real estate sub-sector that seems to have strong prospects for future growth. On the other hand, some sectors are not essential and/or are experiencing weaker demand. So while the growth of e-commerce and work-from-home trends since Covid-19 have benefited certain industrial property segments, such as logistics, they have also weakened many retail and office sub-sectors . As a result, pricing power, i.e. the ability of landlords in these areas to pass on inflationary rent increases to tenants, has been severely affected. However, urbanisation has remained a lasting underlying structural trend and demand for housing in cities is now reaching record levels , with rents rising, benefiting the flat sector, for example. In fact, so-called shelter costs are one of the reasons why inflation in the US economy as a whole has proved so difficult to control. Rapidly discounted interest rates in classified property valuations Investors can tap into these trends by investing in the full range of property assets, from self-storage to prefabricated homes, industrial and other fast-growing digital economy assets. Data centres certainly fall into the latter category. Even before the mass adoption of AI (which relies on data centres to remotely house the processing and storage infrastructures of cloud computing solutions), supply was struggling to keep pace with demand in major metropolitan areas. The potential size of the data centre opportunity is still the subject of heated debate, but analysts estimate that total demand could reach 35 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 in the US, more than double the 17 GW in 2022 (see graph above). Structural growth trends like these explain why listed property can be an interesting option for global equity income and capital growth opportunities, as Shroders points out. Follow more Real Estate topics in SUPERCASA Notícias
Source: Freepik Author: Redaction The European elections are taking place on 9 June . Precisely because its the day before the public holiday, many people take the opportunity to take a few days off to rest. So, in order to continue exercising their right to vote, registered voters in Portugal can register to vote in advance, in a municipality of their choice, on a mobile basis. Mobile voting is a method that the Portuguese can opt for, and they only have to register in advance for this purpose, which is taking place until 30 May. Early voting must be exercised on 2 June, one week before the elections. If you are abroad, you can exercise your right to vote between 28 and 30 May. To have access to this mobility, voters must register at a polling station of their choice in a municipality on the mainland or in the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira, on the government website or by post sent to the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Read more in SUPERCASA News
Source: Freepik Author: Redaction According to the ePortugal portal, 157,389 applications have been submitted so far for the salary premium for the valorisation of qualifications , with a tendency to increase. The support, known as tuition fee reimbursement, is aimed at anyone who has obtained a bachelors or masters degree, who has stayed working in Portugal and fulfils the eligibility requirements for the support. If you have a bachelors or masters degree and have not yet applied, you have until 31 May 2024 to access ePortugal, do the simulation and submit your application. Dont forget that you must also submit your personal tax return, as the tax authorities will be checking whether you had any income in 2023. If no income is declared, the tuition fee refund may be refused. With regard to applications that have already been submitted, the Directorate-General for Higher Education will verify the information provided with regard to the academic degree. In turn, the Tax Authority will have 30 days to validate the request in order to proceed with payment of the prize to the IBAN indicated. Find more topics like this in SUPERCASA News
Source: Freepik Author: Redaction An interest rate cut may be closer than ever, with the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) maintaining its position on a rate review. The next meeting takes place next week and a rate cut is possible. Chief economist Philip Lane announced today that the European Central Bank has indicated that it is prepared to go ahead with a possible first cut in interest rates at its next meeting: Barring any major surprises, at the moment there is enough in what we see to remove the upper level of restriction . The ECB is not among the first banks to start cutting interest rates: leading the way are the Swiss, Swedish and Hungarian banks. Nonetheless, the chief economist warns that the reduction should remain cautious, as the aim is for inflation to continue to fall. Find more topics like this in SUPERCASA News
Source: Freepik Author: Redaction It was at the end of the meeting with the parties, this Friday, May 24, that the Government launched the possibility of an extension of the VAT reduction in construction projects, from 23% to 6%. This was a measure previously implemented in the projects of rehabilitation and construction of real estate for housing, limited to prices, and therefore restricted to Urban Rehabilitation Areas. Now, the door is opened to the possibility of including, also, the component of construction projects. The Portuguese Association of Real Estate Developers and Investors (APPII) expressed its satisfaction with this enlargement, however, the Secretary of State for Housing did not leave deadlines for the implementation of the measure, except that it must be well calibrated . Find more topics like this in SUPERCASA Notícias