EXPERIENCE
EXPERIENCE
We restore what carries the story — the stone, the walls, decades of memory — and rebuild what needs to be safe, so your chapter starts on solid ground. Real Algarve history, never a copy. €6M+ delivered. 11 ruins completed.
Buy the ruin, not the finished villa — save tens of thousands in transfer tax.
Long lunches. Empty beaches in October. Mornings that don't start with a commute. This is the part that doesn't need a contract to sell itself.
Slow mornings, outdoor living, year-round — not just July and August.
Non-stop flights to London, Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin and more.
Private care and daily costs that go further than back home.
Decades of people who came for a season and stayed for good.
"Not a renovation. A pace of life you get to keep."NEAR EXPERIENCE, ALGARVE
Most restoration projects don't fail on the ruin. They fail on everything around it.
Contractors who disappear mid-project
Permits that run a year over the promise
A renovation that quietly becomes a second mortgage
Managing it all from another country, in a language you don't speak
Some of these walls have stood for over 80 years — through decades empty, through roofs that gave way to rain and weeds that grew through the floor. We don't just renovate them. We decide, one by one, which ones deserve a new life.
Saying yes to the wrong ruin is how projects go over budget and over schedule. We'd rather say no early — of everything that crosses our desk, only a fraction ever becomes one of our 11 completed builds.
You're not choosing NEAR for a tax break. But once you've fallen for the villa, these are what make the numbers work even better.
Transfer tax (IMT) applies to the ruin's price, not the finished villa's — often tens of thousands of euros less.
See how it works →Ruins inside an Urban Rehabilitation Area can qualify for reduced VAT on the construction contract itself.
See how it works →The ruin is registered in your name before we lay a single stone — never the other way around.
See the guarantee →Staged payments tied to real progress — never the full amount upfront, never money sitting in limbo.
See how it works →Since the 2026 reform, reconstructing a ruin without changing its exterior no longer requires a building license — even in heritage-protected areas. We only take on ruins that qualify.
See how it works →Lived somewhere your whole life, in a house you never wanted to leave? We can recreate what made it feel like yours — a room's layout, a favourite window, the garden you knew by heart — inside and out, on any of our three models, within what local licensing allows. We've already done this for a client who didn't want a new house. They wanted their old one, near the sea.
Every model is delivered fully turnkey, structure to furniture, always. Final price depends on your ruin's size and plot — this is your starting point.
A quick simulation — not a final quote. No email required.
The more flexible your budget, the faster we find your ruin.
Based on 11 ruins delivered to date. This is a simulation, not a quote — confirmed once we've evaluated real ruins matching your budget.
This is a prospection deposit, not a fee. It puts us to work finding your ruin — and every outcome is covered.
No matching ruin found within 12 weeks — full refund, no conditions.
We find your ruin, and the €1,000 comes straight off your build contract.
A defined window, not an open-ended wait.
Every stage — the search, the deposit, the build — is set out in a written contract, drafted and reviewed with independent lawyers. Nothing verbal, nothing assumed.
The ruin is registered in your name before we lay a single stone. You're never handing over your dream and hoping — we build on what's already yours, never the other way around.
The price you sign is the price you pay. No mid-project surprises, no "unexpected" costs added once the work is underway.
Every payment is tied to a completed, verified stage of construction — never released in advance, never a lump sum sitting with no work behind it.
You pay as each phase of the build is completed — never before it starts.
Each stage is checked on site before the next payment is ever due.
The €1,000 prospection deposit is never money lost to fees — it's credited straight into your first stage.
Buy an already-finished €500,000 villa, and property transfer tax (IMT) is calculated on that full €500,000 — often around €25,000. Buy the ruin in your own name instead, and IMT applies only to the ruin's price. The construction that follows isn't a taxable transfer. On a typical project, that difference can mean tens of thousands of euros saved before you've laid a single brick.
There's a second advantage on top of that. Ruins inside an Urban Rehabilitation Area (ARU) — many of ours are — can qualify for a reduced 6% VAT rate on the construction contract itself, instead of the standard 23%. On a €400,000 build, that's the difference between roughly €92,000 and €24,000 in VAT.
Illustrative only — your exact IMT bracket and VAT eligibility depend on the property, its ARU status, and your situation. We're builders, not tax advisors, but we can put you in touch with a specialist.
A track record you can check, not just a promise. Here's what we've actually completed and handed over.
240m² villa on 50,000m² of land, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. Completed and sold.
140m² restored farmhouse on 6,000m² of land. Full ecological rehabilitation, completed and sold.
Full renovation with modern country-style kitchen, custom joinery throughout. Completed and sold.
Want to see what's realistic for your budget? Ask us on WhatsApp.
One owner who'd already bought a home through us came back for a second — this time buying the ruin himself and letting us run everything else, start to finish. Our most recent sale went further still: the client bought both the ruin and the build, arranged through estate agents. Different paths, same result — proof this model holds up on repeat, not just on paper.
This is the first time we've slept in the house. I love it — you did a great job.
The pool inauguration alone was worth it. I loved it.
I liked working with them so much on my first home that I hired them again to build a second, from scratch.
Tell us your budget and taste. We search the Algarve for the ruin that fits — plot, licensing, and location checked before you commit.
You buy the ruin directly, in your name. The land is yours from day one — no shared ownership, no middleman markup.
One turnkey contract covers structure, systems, interiors and furniture. One handover date — not a hundred invoices.
I've walked into ruins weeks from collapsing — roofs gone, one winter from falling, houses that would have simply disappeared. NEAR Experience exists to give places like that a new life, not just a fresh coat of paint. The refundable deposit, payments tied to real progress, one point of contact — all come from lessons learned watching good people lose months to permits and contractors who vanish. We won't get every ruin right, but we'll always tell you the truth about a property before you commit — even when it's "don't buy this one."
Tell us what you're looking for. We'll come back with real options — not a sales call. Submitting opens WhatsApp with your details, ready to send.
Carried over from your estimate — feel free to adjust below.