What Will Be Europe’s Next “Breakout” Spot?

As I write this, I’m at a café in the Portuguese city of Caldas da Rainha, a historic spa town only 25 minutes from my home on the Silver Coast.

Over the past few years, the Silver Coast and Central Portugal have grown in popularity. Americans in particular have been flooding here.

Founded in the 15th century by Queen Leonor, this leafy mid-sized city packs a lot of charm… from its sulfurous springs and thermal hospital to its verdant parks and cobbled lanes. And it’s just nine minutes from the stunning Obidos Lagoon and miles of wild Atlantic beaches.

It’s a city that feels on the cusp of mainstream discovery. Many of the old baroque buildings, with their beautiful colored tiles, sit in disrepair—just as they did in Porto 10 years ago before money came flooding in. These are affordable 20th-century villas at the heart of town just waiting to be restored to historic grandeur.

My visit here is the beginning of a journey to find the next big “breakout” destination. The next place that will captivate travelers and draw in thousands of international visitors…

Because it’s by getting ahead of these big transformations that you can make a lot of money in real estate. And Portugal has seen more than a few big transformations in recent years.

There was a time not long ago when you couldn’t find an expat in Portugal. Today, expats make up over 7% of the population. And its southern Algarve coast has become a second home for thousands of Americans who see it as low-cost alternative to California, for its year-round sunshine and stunning beaches.

I’ve personally profited by getting ahead of that trend. So too have members of my Real Estate Trend Alert group. One member has made as much as €3.7 million by getting in on multiple RETA opportunities in the beach town of Lagos, leveraging cheap Portuguese financing, and doing some savvy flipping along the way.

Caldas is now officially a contender for the “next Lagos.” A place with the potential to see values spike given the right conditions. But my scouting doesn’t end here.

Soon, I’ll be driving across the border to Spain, where I’ll be visiting the university city of Salamanca. This is Spain’s “Golden City,” boasting its grandest plaza, its oldest university, and one of its most fascinating histories…

Just northwest of Madrid, it has all the hallmarks of an attractive place for remote workers and culture vultures to spend time. The old town is packed with stunning sandstone architecture, great value food, museums, and breathtaking scenery.

I’ll be using my “strolling strategy” (open the Idealista real estate app, circle a 15-minute radius from the historic center on its interactive map, and start walking) to seek out the most promising real estate.

From Salamanca I’ll be driving to the port city of Bilbao in north eastern Spain, one of the great treasures of the Basque Country. It has a reputation of a must-visit city for architecture lovers, with a venerable dining scene and stunning landscapes just outside the city center. My plan is to take in the city and then take the ferry from there to Ireland.

The Emerald Isle has had one of the most expensive and dysfunctional property markets in Europe in recent years, but I hope to get to some remote pockets of its rural Atlantic coast, where you can still find bargains on traditional cottages in windswept outposts.

Then it’s back to northern Iberia to the lush green Atlantic regions of Spain’s Costa Verde and Galicia, as well as the coastal towns of northern and central Portugal.

This type of scouting trip is slow and takes time. But there’s no substitute for boots on the ground—or rubber on the road—research. The more of this in-person scouting I can do, the more profitable real estate opportunities I can uncover.