Earlier today, I arrived in the town of Lagos, on Portugal’s southernmost coast…
If you don’t know Lagos, this is a place of golden cliffs…glistening beaches…a modern marina…excellent dining…world-class golf…and a 16th-century walled Old Town…
I consider Lagos the most beautiful and historic town on Portugal’s Algarve.
I’ve been scouting Lagos for well over a decade. And I’ve put my Real Estate Trend Alert (RETA) group ahead of its transformation with a string of off-market deals negotiated exclusively for RETA members.
Members have seen uplifts like €351,000 and €414,500 on these deals. Now, I’m closing in on a new exclusive deal here…
I’m about to bring RETA members a new deal here…
But today, I want to show you exactly what one RETA member achieved from our past Lagos deals.
Brad Costanzo is a RETA member from San Diego who’s bought in two of our past deals in Lagos. Below he tells you why he bought in Lagos and how he was able to use Portuguese bank financing to supercharge his returns here.
Read on…
Wishing you good real estate investing,
Like San Diego for a Quarter of the Price
By Brad Costanzo
I purchased my first property in Lagos, in the Algarve, in 2019. It worked out so well I went ahead and bought a second Lagos condo in 2021.
My wife and I had been thinking about investing internationally for about a year before we bought in Lagos.
We came across International Living and started researching.
I didn’t know where I wanted to buy, but I knew I wanted something outside the U.S.
I focused at first on places closer to home…Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama. Even though we’d been to Spain a couple of times, investing in Europe never really crossed my mind—it seemed too far out of reach.
Then I happened to meet Ronan.
I mentioned that my wife and I live in San Diego, and how much we love it there. Ronan said if we love San Diego, we’d really love Lagos. He described it as like San Diego, but for a quarter of the price…and you can get a mortgage.
That got our attention…
A few months later, the RETA opportunity in the Santa Maria community in Lagos came up. We jumped on it—despite never having set foot in Portugal.
It would be another six months before we would visit in person.
Flying into Portugal for the first time we started to get a little nervous about it all. But the minute we landed in Lisbon and made our way to Lagos, those fears vanished.
Lagos really is like San Diego—the same light, the same weather, beaches that are actually even better…
We spent two weeks at our condo in Lagos and fell completely in love.
While we were there, we found out about a second RETA opportunity—Dona Ana Beach Residences. It was sold out, but we got on the waiting list, and when a spot opened up, we took it.
I’m so happy we did…
We love the lifestyle in Lagos. But some of the biggest benefits of owning here have been financial.
Our mortgage on the Santa Maria property was 80% loan-to-value over 30 years—which is really challenging to find in a lot of other places.
That means in total, we put down around €100,000, plus closing costs and furniture, on a €500,000 purchase.
Three years after taking delivery I spoke with our property manager, who told me that comparable units in the same building were selling for €750,000 or more.
In a little over three years, the property gained at least €250,000 in value—about 50%. But we only put down €100,000 of our own money.
In other words, the €250,000 uplift was two and a half times the cash we initially invested.
And cash flow from rentals was covering the mortgage.
I’m grateful for how RETA has handled the entire process, from due diligence to closing.
Honestly, the hardest part of being a RETA member is restraint—not putting every deal you see under contract, because the opportunities are that good.
If you’re on the fence, don’t hesitate. You’ll be in good hands—especially in Lagos.
Hope to see you there as a neighbor.
RONAN SAYS: I’m delighted that Brad and Kenia have enjoyed Lagos so much—and that their investments there have performed so strongly.
These have been exceptional deals…
RETA members could buy two-bed condos in Santa Maria from €310,500 in December 2019. By 2025, a two-bed there was listing at €725,000—an uplift of €414,500.
The other community where they own, Dona Ana Beach Residences, has delivered similar results.
In 2021, RETA members could lock down two-bed condos in this community from €477,000 and three-beds from €549,000. Right now, a three-bed there is listing for €900,000—an uplift of €351,000.
Incredible uplifts. And leverage can supercharge them, as they did for Brad…
Portugal is one of the easiest places in the world for a foreigner to secure financing. I’ve used financing on multiple occasions to buy in Portugal myself, and I know many members of our group like Brad have too.
As I say, Lagos deals are some of the best in the history of our RETA group. But they have become extraordinarily hard to find.
The same forces that made my members’ results possible—scarce land, strict planning, soaring demand—mean that opportunities here are drying up.
Each one could realistically be the last.
That’s why, right now, I have boots on the ground in Lagos.
I’m here to jam open the window of opportunity in Lagos and use our longstanding contacts to deliver another killer deal.
I’m going to walk the site. Sit across the table from the developer—someone my group has known and worked with for years. And complete the final stages of due diligence.
The opportunity is a short walk from Dona Ana—a beach so spectacular it’s been ranked among the best in the world.
There are only 40 condos in this deal. That’s it. That’s because this is a boutique community.
There will be four pools. Four. Plus an amenity stack that is true luxury—something special even by the standards of Lagos. You get the privacy and the facilities of a multi-million-euro villa, in a lock-and-leave condo.
And consider this detail: the building has four elevators. Spread across just 40 condos—some of them on the ground floor—you’d be sharing your elevator with only a handful of neighbors. That’s the level of quality that runs through this community.
I expect this new deal to be cut from the same cloth as the past RETA deals here. I expect gains of €255,000 five years after delivery. As for rental income, my numbers show potential gross rental yields of over 10% annually once the community’s established. And that’s with plenty of time for your personal use, too.
