How to find an apartment in Lisbon?

Have you been thinking of coming to Lisbon for a remote work stay? That sounds pretty nice. If you’re thinking about working remotely, we interpret this as you’re looking for a long term rent in Lisbon and let’s be honest, to find apartment rental in Lisbon or a room in Lisbon is not the easiest topic, we’ve already been there and we know the struggle.

We don’t want you to panic though, we got you covered. This is why we created a little guide on how to find an apartment in Lisbon so you could do remote work in Portugal without any inconvenience.

Which is the best way to search for an apartment or accommodation in Lisbon in the first place mainly depends on the desired length of stay. If you’re planning to stay long-term, probably the best way is to look at local real estate platforms. The most prominent ones of them are Idealista, Imovirtual, and Casasapo. These websites offer a wide range of long-term accommodation deals, with the offer ranging from studio apartments, up to big shared apartments, or rooms in shared apartments only. Many of the apartments online are unfurnished, but you will also find a selection of furnished apartments there.

As these are local Portuguese platforms and are usually not used by tourists for shorter stays, you should have a fair chance to get a decent-priced apartment there. The only thing is that for the majority of apartments, you will have to do contracts of at least one year, and sometimes you have to leave several months of upfront rent payment and rental deposit, which is quite common in Portugal. So it really depends on your wish for flexibility. If you’re staying for longer, these platforms can be a really good deal.

If you’re looking for a short-term stay, the easiest way is to look on short-term rental platforms like Airbnb or Booking.com. Pretty sure that you will find something there if you just wanna stay in Lisbon for a few days or a week or two. But make sure you book quite in advance to get a good deal. Also, especially during the summer months, prices tend to skyrocket and be even more expensive than hotel rooms  (which is even quite a lot).

And then there's the third option, which probably applies to you if you want to come to Lisbon to work remotely, as a digital nomad, or for a workation: looking for mid-term rentals.

That means, having the flexibility of a short-term stay, with a price in the long-term range.

This sounds very appealing, but in practice, you will rarely find such deals though. It will come down to either giving up your flexibility and going for a longer stay or accepting the higher price of AirBnB apartments and being able to flexibly determine the length of your stay.

But stop, wait a minute. You don't have to make such hard sacrifices. Ideally, you can book flexible monthly stays, and according to your preference, needs, and personal situation you can flexibly go for stays of 1 or more months. Obviously, the prices will be a bit higher than a regular long-term rental, but nowhere near as high as when you book through AirBnB or other short-term rental platforms.

Also, what can be a problem with the big platforms for short and mid-term stay accommodation is that they are platforms. That means, they can’t really control what is on the platform and if the information the hosts give you is true. This can become a real topic for you when looking for an apartment with good WiFi, you will only know if the connection is good enough once you get there.

Because we also were in the same situation as you, looking for a reasonably priced apartment in Lisbon, but also flexible enough for mid-term stays, we created bleisured. By hand-selecting the apartments, we make sure that all apartments meet our standards and that they are perfectly prepared for remote working. So if you’re still looking for an apartment in Lisbon, we might have something for you!