Building a House in Madeira: The 12 Questions We Get Asked Over and Over

Building a house in Madeira looks simple from a distance. Over the past years we have gone through 31 architectural projects here, plus hundreds of consultation emails, calls, and site visits where we stood in the bushes with a client trying to work out what can actually be built there.

And here is the interesting part. The questions repeat. Not roughly — literally. A client from London, a client from Munich and a client from Bratislava will send us the same sentence in the same week, just worded differently.

So we started writing them down. After a while we had a fairly clear picture of what really worries people when they build on Madeira — and in what order.

That is why we are starting this series. We will go through the questions one by one and answer them the way we answer them on a call: specific, with numbers, no marketing filler. Sometimes with the answer the client does not want to hear, because that one is usually the most useful.

The 12 questions

1. What is SIP, and how is it different from a normal timber house? Almost everything else on this list depends on the answer to this one. So we start here.

2. How much does it cost per square meter? Where most enquiries start — and where the simple answer is almost always misleading. Including the part nobody asks about until it is too late: how much of your budget is decided by the plot you buy, before a single line of the project is drawn.

3. I already have a project. Can you build it? Usually yes. Whether it makes sense is a different question, and it depends on what the project was designed in. If you already hold a permit for a concrete build, there is a route that saves most people 9 to 12 months.

4. I am starting a project and I have my own architect. Can you meet them? Yes. This arrangement works very well when it is set up correctly at the beginning, and very badly when it is not. We will be honest about which is which.

5. Will a timber building survive Madeira humidity and salt? The most common concern by far. The answer has two levels, and most people do not know the second one — which is the one that actually decides.

6. How long does the whole thing take? Shell construction versus the full project. Two very different numbers.

7. Do the authorities on Madeira accept the SIP system? Short answer: yes. The longer answer is more interesting.

8. How does payment work? Straightforward, but people ask, so we will put it in writing.

9. What about wind and earthquakes? Specific numbers, specific certificates. No adjectives.

10. What about termites, woodworm and rodents? The answer is not about the material. It is about the system.

11. Do I need to be on Madeira during construction? Most of our clients live somewhere else. Let us talk about how this actually works.

12. What rental yield can I expect? Market numbers and numbers from our own operation. The second ones are more accurate.

How this series on building a house in Madeira will work

Every article in this series is one question and one answer. No “it depends on the circumstances” without a follow-up. If something genuinely depends on the plot, we will tell you what exactly it depends on and what it typically costs.

We start with number one. What this system actually is.

And if a question comes to your mind that is not on the list — send it to us. If it shows up three times, it gets its own article.