Grupo RAR

RAR Group invests 19 million in Quinta do Paço Lumiar with 17 villas that are part of the complex, just missing to sell five. RAR Imobiliária started this year with a new project of 90 apartments in Oporto.

Quinta do Paço Lumiar is the latest project of RAR Imobiliária and has the signature, for the first time in Lisbon, of the architect Eduardo Souto de Moura. In an interview with the Economic Journal, José António Teixeira, Director of RAR Imobiliária, explains that "Eduardo Souto de Moura enters this project as we wanted to start in Lisbon with a condominium of houses, because there is no one inside Lisbon. We thought it was an interesting project because it is also the first project of the architect in Lisbon".

The construction of Quinta do Paço Lumiar still goes halfway, but José António Teixeira,is pleased with the progress, because "from the 17 houses already 12 were sold, so it gives me idea that the choice was right.

Our strategy is very much based on offering the market what the market wants at that time and what the history tells us is that we chose the right projects. We have never had losses and in the worst year of the crisis, we were above 1 million euros of EBITDA, "says the Director of RAR Imobiliária, who admits the company has already received proposals from abroad to establish partnerships. Every month we receive proposes from funds to partner with them in a particular project. We don't have any kind of complexes with these situations. " With an investment in the enterprise of about 19 million euros, in which four were for the purchase of the land and 15 million for construction and other costs, José António Teixeira says that "at this moment we only have for sale the typology T3 + 1 and T3 , from the five that are missing to sell. The average value is around 1.5 million euros. The T4 are the most expensive and were the first to be sold, for values of 1.8 million, having one reached very close to the 2 million euros ".

A particularity in relation to buyers is the fact that “they are all Portuguese, so far, but, for example, in one of our projects of apartments in Matosinhos, we sold a big part to Brazilian citizens, due to the golden Visa, for values around 500,000 and 600,000 euros ", explains the Director, since" the foreigners who come to Lisbon, want to stay in the city centre. Lisbon citizens already know the city knowing how to position itself in the best area to reach the city ". For the future is already programmed the “Novo Parque” project in Matosinhos. "We intend to start in the end of the year or in the first quarter of 2020. At this time it is still in the architecture and licensing stage. We want to start selling in July or September of this year ", in what is a totally different venture from Quinta do Paço Lumiar. "It will be about 90 apartments, in which a part will be disruptive apartments. We will have six apartments typology Tl, with a concept of inhabiting completely different from what we present to the market, "says the Director from RAR.

As such, the investment is higher. "Will be around 22 million euros. This is because the land in Matosinhos is cheaper than in Lisbon and this type of construction is usually cheaper than independent housing", he says. About the differences found in the residential market of Lisbon and Porto, José António Teixeira points out that "at this moment the residential market in Lisbon, in some prime locations, which is where we work, is considered speculated, but there is no danger of a real estate bubble as it happened in 2008 ", when the sector was affected by the crisis, and that in the opinion of the manager of RAR had a very quick rise, mainly from 2014 to 2018, but can be sure that these years of crisis were a lesson to everyone and this began to be noted in the bank credit to the housing", he says.

José António Teixeira refers that "a slowdown in price rises is already being noticed, and this will stabilise, because what is intended is that the market has consistent values with the Portuguese market. Now, there is still a greater demand for the supply.

"RAR Imobiliária’s Director sees "a stable future" in the residential market, although "does not have a crystal ball", but mentioning that "we are currently experiencing moments of economic and political stability, not only in Portugal, but in Europe", being "this fundamental for the sector".