Is Your Buyer's Agent Showing You the Whole Market?
The difference between an agent who works for you,
and one who just works the system.
The first time I bought a property in Portugal, I didn't know "buyer's agents" were a thing. I grew up in South Africa where the idea isn't the standard, generally you just deal with whoever has the listing, or show up at an open house and get on with it. So I did exactly that.
It was only later, after I'd bought and sold a few times, and poked around the Portuguese market for a couple of years, that the question started coming up: should I be using a buyer's agent?
If you have started googling it, you may have noticed that most of the available answers are written by, well... buyer's agents. Which is fine. They're hardly going to say don't bother. But it does mean the picture you're getting is not the WHOLE thing.
So here's the version I'd give you over a meia de leite at one of the cafés Sesimbra promenade. The one that explains how this market actually works, including the bit nobody in the Portugal property industry really wants to talk about.
Milla at a café in Sesimbra
A buyer's agent works for you, not the seller. They search the market on your behalf, shortlist properties, negotiate on your side of the table. And walk you through the bewildering bits (and there are a lot of bewildering bits).
A good one is worth their weight in gold.
In Portugal, this is still a relatively new way of working. Historically (and still a lot of the time), the agent you meet at a viewing represents the seller. They're often lovely and helpful, but their commission and their loyalty come from the other side of the table. That buyer's agents are still new here matters more than you'd expect, which brings me to the part that nobody talks about.
How mandates work, and why you should care
When a seller lists a property they sign a mandate with a real estate agent and you get two flavours:
An exclusive mandate means that one agency has the sole right to sell the property. Other agents can't list it. If they bring a buyer, they have to go through the listing agency and share the commission.
An open mandate means the seller has listed with multiple agencies You'll often spot the same apartment listed four times on the same website.. and sometimes at four different prices (that's a whole other post that I'll get to eventually).
For you as a buyer, open mandates are actually quite useful. More agencies are motivated to show you that property and they don't have to share the commission.
The downside is that the market starts looking like a confusing soup of duplicate listings, which is why so many foreign buyers feel like they are chasing their tail on Idealista at 11 o'clock at night.
The properties you'll never be shown
Here's the thing about working with a buyer's agent in Portugal: even the best one is operating inside a market with some quirks. And one of those quirks can quietly limit the properties you ever get to see. Not because your agent is lazy. Not because they're hiding thing from you. But because of how commissions actually work here.
Stay with me - this is the part that will save you money, headaches, and possibly the house you were meant to find.
When a buyer's agent brings a client to a property listed by another agency, the two agents are supposed to split the seller's commission.
You’ve probably heard the pitch already: "Our services are completely free to you as a buyer, the seller pays our fee!"
It sounds like a dream. But let’s be real for a second: nothing in real estate is actually free. That "free" service is entirely dependent on how that 5% pie gets sliced behind the scenes.
In practice? Some listing agents flat-out refuse to split. And when that happens, that property quietly doesn't make it onto your shortlist. Your buyer's agent isn't being shady, they just can't work for free. Nobody can.
So that "perfect" house you somehow never heard about? It might exist. You just got filtered out before you ever saw it.
There's another wrinkle. Some agents will talk sellers into a higher commission upfront, 6% instead of the standard 5%, so there's "room to share" with a buyer's agent.
Sometimes that's a fair argument. Sometimes it's just a way to charge a bigger fee.
And the discount trap works in reverse: when a seller has hammered their agent down to 2% or 3% total, there's simply nothing left to split. A buyer's agent physically cannot take you to that property and stay in business. So those listings quietly fall off your radar, too.
I saw this happen with my own eyes. A few years ago I spent some time training as an agent here, partly out of curiosity, partly because, after buying and selling enough properties, I figured I might as well see the machinery from the inside.
(There's a longer story about why I ultimately decided not to become an agent, which I'll write up properly one day. Spoiler: this was a big part of it.)
One thing the senior agent told me, very directly, was: don't let buyers contact the listings themselves. Keep them on your shortlist. Keep them on your viewings. The reason given, quietly, was exactly this. If a listing agent won't split commission, that property simply doesn't get shown. Better the buyers never know it exists than have them go around you.
I watched a buyer get told a property "wasn't available." It was perfectly available. They just never got to see it, because the numbers didn't work for the agent showing them around.
That's the market you're navigating.
And it's a big part of why I started writing this blog. Once you've seen how the sausage is made, you can't unsee it, and frankly, you shouldn't have to.
How to spot a buyer's agent worth hiring
This is the most important part. A good buyer's agent in Portugal is genuinely worth what you pay them.
They save you from bad neighbourhoods, bad lawyers, bad surveys, bad notaries, and the occasional bad investment dressed up in a fresh coat of paint. They are not the problem here. The problem is finding the right one.
So have the slightly awkward conversation before you start viewing. Ask, in plain language:
"What happens if a listing agent won't share commission?"
A decent agent will give you a straight answer. A great one already has a plan, and will tell you what it is.
If you want maximum access to the market (and you really should), offer to make up the difference yourself when a listing agent won't split. In the context of buying a property, it's not a huge sum. And it means your agent can show you everything, not just the listings where the maths happens to work out neatly.
This one conversation tells you a lot. It tells you whether the agent is upfront about how the market actually works, or whether they'd rather keep you in the dark. Pick the one who tells you the truth. They do exist, and they're worth finding.
The bottom line
Buyer's agents are becoming more common in Portugal, and that's a good thing. Having someone properly in your corner, someone who knows the market, the language, the lawyers, and the landmines, is genuinely valuable, especially if you're buying from another country. I'd happily recommend using one. I just want you to choose carefully and walk in with your eyes open.
Ask the slightly uncomfortable questions upfront. Know how the money flows before it starts flowing past you. And if an agent ever tells you a property you'd had your eye on "isn't available", it might just be worth a second phone call.
I'm Moira. I've bought, sold, rented out, Airbnb'd, and occasionally lost sleep over more Portuguese properties than I care to count. I write Portugal Horizon to help fellow South Africans, Brits, Americans, and anyone else dreaming about a life here, avoid the mistakes I've already made on your behalf.
You're welcome.
