Houses, places and the Portuguese property market, written by us

Monte, herdade, quinta: the vocabulary, the architecture and the checks that matter before buying a farmhouse in the Alentejo, from the land register to the cork oaks.

A rice estate, a fishermen's pier on stilts, thatched houses by Aires Mateus and a new planning regime: how to read Comporta and Melides before you buy.

A date carved on a chimney, a square named after the Rojão, a liberal of 1832 and a republican mayor of 1910: the story of a town house in Reguengos de Monsaraz.

In the Alto Alentejo town of Nisa, a stately house on Rua Dr. Manuel Arriaga is the seat of the women who keep the town's embroidery alive.