OWNERSHIP

Do I own my villa and the land?

Yes. Each buyer at Apaulinha holds full, individual ownership title to their villa under Portugal's horizontal property regime (propriedade horizontal), together with its plot of approximately one hectare. This is outright ownership — not a leasehold, timeshare or fractional arrangement.

Apaulinha comprises nine single-family villas on a twelve-hectare estate near Grândola, developed within a rural tourism framework. The estate's legal structure allows division into horizontal property, meaning each villa is sold individually with its own registrable title, in the buyer's name, freely inheritable and transferable as Portuguese law provides.

The purchase has a second component alongside the real estate. The total price is structured as 75% for the villa itself — the property transfer — and 25% for shares (quotas) in Apaulinha Management Lda, the operating company that owns and runs the estate's common infrastructure: reception, restaurant, spa and the collective equipment. Every owner therefore holds two things: full title to their home and land, and a shareholding in the company behind the shared estate.

This dual structure is the foundation of how Apaulinha works. The villa and its hectare are the owner's alone, delivering the privacy and autonomy of a private house — the undulating terrain gives each villa natural visual independence from its neighbours. The shareholding, meanwhile, gives every owner a genuine stake in the common amenities rather than a mere right to use them, and a voice in how the estate is run through the owners' club. Interests are aligned by design: the people who own the villas also own the company that maintains the setting around them.

For a buyer, the practical consequences are significant. Full ownership under horizontal property is the most robust and most liquid form of title in the Portuguese market — it is what banks lend against, what notaries register and what future purchasers expect. And because the land component is unusually generous (roughly one hectare per villa on an estate that uses less than half its authorised building capacity), the title encompasses not just a house but a meaningful landholding in a planning-constrained area.