When Portugal was hit by an economic crisis in 2011, Magda Tilli and her husband Miguel realised that if they wanted to make a decent living they would have to set up their own business.
At the time Mr Tilli was working as an estate agent, but with the Portuguese housing market in free fall, he was earning next to nothing.
And with Portugal’s government needing a 78bn euro ($103bn; £62bn) international bailout, in exchange for putting in place a number of austerity measures, the wider Portuguese economy was mired in its worst recession for more than 40 years.
With the jobs market having ground to a halt, and four children to look after, Magda and Miguel Tilli decided they had no option but to take a chance on starting their own company.
Ms Tilli, 37, recalls: “We were at the beach, brainstorming about what we could do.”
Tapping into Mr Tilli’s knowledge of the property market, they recognised that they could turn a problem – no one was buying homes anymore – into a business opportunity.
And so, they decided to launch an estate agent business specialising in renting houses in Lisbon city centre.
While such a focus on rental properties may be common in other countries, the great majority of Portuguese estate agents only deal with selling homes.
This is because in Portugal owning your own house or apartment has always been such a matter of pride that it is the first choice of most people, even young adults. Read more
