Portugal listing: affordable Algarve

• Expat listing: unwind in Ibiza

Knight Frank (knightfrank.co.uk) reports a Portuguese listing price rise of 1.8 per cent from Q1 2014 to Q1 2015. Following around a 30 per cent drop in prices between 2007 and 2012, unsurprisingly, the Algarvean listing market is picking up.

“For a long time listings have sold well below the asking price. It is only over the past few months that the gap between original price tag and actual price sold has begun to see significant shrinkage,” according to expat John Baker-Malpas, who moved from Yorkshire nearly a decade ago and now works for Ideal Homes Portugal (idealhomesportugal.com). “British expats began to discover the eastern Algarve around five years ago, with affordability and location as key factors.”

For those leaning toward the less conventional, a British expat ceramicist is selling his renovated three-story townhouse (pictured below), decorated throughout with original tiles, for €320,000 (£226,480) through Ideal Homes Portugal. Located in the picturesque fishing village of Ferragudo with its cobblestone streets, the listing features a roof terrace, plunge pool and a self-contained office next door ripe for conversion.

The old fishing harbour of Tavira with its cobbled streets, attractive squares, a Roman bridge and a clutch of churches is around half an hour’s drive to Faro airport or about 20 minutes to the Spanish border.

On the edge of Tavira at the mouth of the River Gilão a Cistercian convent dating back to 1509 has been restored and sustainably converted into apartments by internationally renowned architect Eduardo Souto Moura. Original features have been retained throughout each of the 76 individually designed studio to three-bedroom units cloistered around a vast saltwater swimming pool.

Some feature private gardens or roof terraces. All have fibre optic connections, fully fitted kitchens and air conditioning. Prices range from €230,000 (£162,797) to €450,000 (£318,557) (idealhomesportugal.com).

Still considered affordable, but perhaps less so than the east, the western Algarve city of Lagos is known for family lifestyle and gastronomy, and is widely acknowledged as one of the region’s most sustainable year round destinations. On its outskirts is the neighbourhood of Porto de Mós (pictured above) where presently under construction and due for completion in 2017, 48 one to three-bedroom apartments – most with unobstructed sea views – are priced from €190,000 (£134,489) (rodriguesevermelho.com).

If an eastern Algarve hillside location with sea views is more to your liking, some 10 kilometres above Tavira a two-bedroom, two-story villa with 74sq m of living space is for sale for €159,000 (£112,529) (garvetur.pt).

East of Tavira and near the coast, Opomar is a modern resort with 160 two and three-bedroom apartments and townhouses where listings with large terraces start at €172,500 (£122,113) (opomar.net). “Popular with British expats, we appeal especially to young families and retirees,” said marketing manager João Faustino.