There's a very SERIOUS shortage of professional builders in Portugal, good builders are fully booked many months in advance, even years... the ones available at short notice are the cowboy builders trying to make a quick buck. Best avoided.
To find good & experienced builders takes time and you'd better speak portuguese as they don't like to use translation apps to explain complex building work, and they have more than enough clients to choose from.
To find good builders, ask local architects and the staff at your local planning department of the Camara Municipal, as they will know who are the good ones: they deal with them and see work done by them every day.
Building merchants may also be able to recommend local builders, but with less guarantees.
If you are doing major works, it may be easier to hire a portuguese architect who speaks English and let him/her deal with the builders on your behalf, and manage the whole project.
How much will it cost to build a new house?
It depends on many different factors, such as:
Is the plot level? Do you need to excavate and remove soil to prepare the building site? Is it easy for trucks to deliver materials? Is there enough space to store materials?
What type of build and materials used? Simple design or complex? Good insulation or none? Basic finish or high end? Locally available materials or imported?
Construction prices start at 1000 Euros per m2 for a basic build and can go up to 2500 Euros per m2 and more... How long is a piece of string? As long as you cut it.
If you have a good & experienced project manager, you'll be in a good position to control the costs.
See this site for current prices and info:
Search online "Quanto custa construir uma casa em Portugal?" for a lot more info.
There are also different types of building contracts.
Here's what our family did some years ago, and this is the most cost-effective way to build but involves constant management and understanding the trade:
We agreed with the builder to pay him for all construction work, as signed on the contract, monthly in advance (so he could pay his staff at the end of each month), and we paid separarately for the building materials which came mostly from one supplier.
As both the builder and ourselves knew the supplier, we opened an account with them. We and the builder would order the materials as & when needed, they were promptly supplied, and we paid the supplier the outstanding bills at the end of each month as agreed.
Sometimes the builder ordered and paid specific materials from elsewhere if he had a trade discount, and we reimbursed him immediatelly.
Paying everyone prompty as agreed, ensures everybody's happy.
We project-managed everything ourselves with the builder, some materials had to be ordered long in advance to be available when needed, but the builder was very good at planning ahead so the building never had to stop for lack of materials: this is very important!!!
It is equally important not to order too much materials: project-management involves knowing how to calculate quantities. We had an agreement with the supplier that any unused materials could be returned, but not every supplier will agree to this. For instance, marble stone that is cut to measure cannot be returned.
Potential problems:
You cannot project manage from a distance.
It's very difficult for someone to project manage if they don't understand the basics of building. Hence the importance of a good relationship & trust with the builder.
Being available on site on a daily basis, checking all materials delivered for accuracy & quantity as ordered, ensuring the builder & workers are not making short-cuts* that could end badly.
*Example: If the cement is not mixed in the correct ratio with the correct type of sand, the floors & walls could crack, happened to someone I know. If the correct steel rods are not assembled property inside the reinforced concret pillars & slabs, the building could collapse in the next earthquake (and the Algarve is an earthquake risk area).
Our builder used poor quality sand to render an external wall (instead of waiting for new supply) because the supplier had run out of building grade sand. He wanted to finish the job instead of waiting for delivery, and he said it did not matter in an external wall. We trusted him.
Well... it did matter. A couple of years later the render of that wall started to crumble... it had to be re-rendered but we didn't bother him because he had already retired.
Be aware: There will always be lots of problems during building, the way we approach each one will make or break the relationships.
Many relationships between client - builder break down because the clients don't quite understand the technicalities, and change their original requirements on a whim.
