High-Value Homes

A Portuguese multirriscos habitação is not the same product as the household policy you left behind, and the differences are structural rather than cosmetic. The sum insured is meant to be the cost of rebuilding, not what the property would fetch. The policy the bank arranged with the mortgage protects the lender's interest first and yours second. Contents, liability and the boundary with the condominium's own policy are all handled differently here from the way they are in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands or the United States.

This is the largest category on the English side because the housing itself is varied. A clifftop villa on the western Algarve, an apartment in a Lisbon building put up in the 1950s, a converted farmhouse in the interior and a golf resort townhouse are four different underwriting problems. So we write about earthquake cover, subsidence and coastal erosion, swimming pools and private jetties, guest annexes and staff quarters, solar panels and EV chargers, wine cellars, safes and alarm requirements, and the renovation of listed or heritage buildings — where the reinstatement obligation is not simply "as it was".

The other recurring theme is the gap between how a property is owned and how it is insured. Holding a house through a company, splitting a portfolio across two jurisdictions, buying before you have residency, leaving a second home empty for eight months of the year: each of these can quietly void or restrict a policy that was correct on the day it was written. Unoccupancy clauses in particular are the single most common reason we see a claim reduced. Where the answer depends on the specific wording, we say so rather than generalise.

Looking for a quote rather than a read? See our high-value home insurance page.