A third-floor Chiado apartment dating to 1892, painstakingly renovated to pair restored period detailing with a contemporary specification that meets the exacting standards of a London-based investor seeking a high-yielding pied-à-terre.
Context
The client identified Chiado as the target neighbourhood — Lisbon’s cultural and commercial heart, with reliable demand from both short-term visitors and executive tenants. Our acquisition team sourced twelve off-market options, shortlisted three, and negotiated the purchase of a 142-square-metre apartment in an 1890s pombalino-adjacent building. The unit had been subdivided into bedsits in the 1970s, its original ceilings concealed behind suspended panels and its period joinery removed. Beneath the neglect, the bones were exceptional: ornamental plasterwork, three-metre ceiling heights, and south-facing windows overlooking Rua Garrett.
Restoration and Redesign
The suspended ceilings were removed to reveal — and then meticulously restore — the original stucco rosettes and cornicing. Where sections had been lost, specialist artisans replicated them from moulds taken on site. The floor plan was opened into a two-bedroom, two-bathroom layout with a central living-kitchen volume designed around a four-metre island in honed Nero Marquina marble. Herringbone European oak replaced the damaged pine sub-floor throughout. Every window was rebuilt as a thermally broken timber sash, replicating the original profiles while achieving modern acoustic and thermal performance.
Timeline and Outcome
The renovation was completed in under eight months — a pace that required daily coordination between our project manager, the structural engineer, the heritage consultant, three specialist trades, and the Câmara Municipal de Lisboa. Licensing for heritage-grade interior works, typically a bottleneck in the Baixa-Chiado zone, was secured in advance of demolition by submitting a comprehensive heritage impact report alongside the standard building permit application.
The apartment now operates as a dual-use asset: the client occupies it during quarterly Lisbon visits and it is managed as a premium short-term rental for the remaining months, generating a gross yield that covered the full renovation cost within four years of completion. An independent post-completion valuation placed the property at 38% above the combined acquisition-plus-renovation outlay.