How to Sell Your Home and Buy Another Without Getting Stuck Between Moves
Three ways to move home in Portugal
Your current home no longer feels quite right. Maybe your family needs more space, or you have your eye on a different area. Then comes the awkward question: do you sell first and hope you find somewhere to go, or buy the next place and hope your current home sells quickly?
There is no single answer that works for everyone. It depends on your savings, mortgage, and how much uncertainty you can comfortably manage. These are the three options I like to look at before a property goes on the market.
First, work out what your next purchase really looks like
The asking price of your current home is only a starting point. What matters is how much you would actually have left after repaying any mortgage and covering the costs of selling. You then need to compare that with the price of your next home, taxes and purchase expenses.
If you will need a new mortgage, speak to a bank or mortgage intermediary early. It helps you distinguish between options that are genuinely possible and those that only work on paper.
Sell first, buy afterwards
This often makes sense if you need the proceeds of your current sale to fund the next purchase. You sell, know exactly what you have available, and then look for your next home.
Ideally, you start researching the next market well before completing the sale. It may be possible to negotiate a later handover date with your buyer, but that arrangement needs to be agreed and recorded properly.
The upside: you have a clear budget and avoid carrying two properties at the same time.
The risk: the right home may not appear before you have to move out. It is worth having a temporary accommodation plan.
Buy first, sell afterwards
This may work if you have enough savings or a lender is prepared to finance the new home before you sell the old one. You can find the right place without an immediate deadline to leave your current home.
Before committing, check the deposit, taxes, bank valuation and whether you can afford the running costs of two homes for a while. A mortgage agreement in principle does not remove the lender’s later checks.
The upside: you can move at your own pace and avoid temporary accommodation.
The risk: the sale could take longer than expected, leaving you with an uncomfortable financial burden.
Prepare both transactions in parallel
Here, you prepare your current home for sale while researching suitable properties to buy. The goal is to coordinate the timing as closely as possible.
This takes careful planning. The CPCV agreements, financing, completion deeds and key handovers all need attention. A lawyer should review the contractual dates and protections, including what happens if the bank or another party is delayed. Matching dates can never be guaranteed.
The upside: you may reduce the gap between selling and moving.
The risk: a delay in one transaction can affect the other if there is no contingency plan.
Five questions I would ask first
- What could your current home realistically sell for, rather than just be listed for?
- How much will remain after mortgage repayment and selling costs?
- What does the next home actually cost?
- Will you need a new mortgage?
- What happens if one transaction is delayed?
Why I do not start with the listing
Creating a property listing is the easy part. Pricing the home properly, checking its paperwork, preparing it for viewings and connecting the sale to your next purchase is where most of the work happens. Leave those decisions until later and they tend to arrive at the least convenient moment.
So before we go live, I work with the owner on the sequence of steps, check the property’s readiness with the relevant specialists, prepare its presentation and discuss realistic timelines. After publication, the focus can stay on genuine buyers, viewings and negotiations rather than last-minute problems.
This is not a promise to sell in a fixed number of days. It is a way to make the move easier to understand and manage.
Questions I often hear
We only want to know what our home might sell for.
Of course. That is a good starting point. But the number matters more when you know what you need for the next purchase and whether the proposed price is realistic enough to attract buyers without wasting months.
We could list the property ourselves.
Absolutely. The difficult part is not pressing Publish. It is the preparation, paperwork, positioning, assessing buyer interest and negotiating once enquiries begin.
We are afraid of selling and then having nowhere to go.
That is exactly why I prefer to plan the whole move first. We look at the next-home market, financing, handover dates and a backup option. It does not remove every risk, but you make the key decisions before you are under pressure.