Belgian Developer Thomas & Piron Lines Up 432 Million Euros for Three Housing Schemes, Led by 700 Flats in Sacavém

The Belgian property group Thomas & Piron has three housing developments under way in Portugal worth a combined 432 million euros, its Portugal director, David Carreira, told Dinheiro Vivo. The largest by far is a new neighbourhood of about 700 flats planned for Sacavém, in Loures, just north of Lisbon; the other two are in Greater Porto.

Clarissas, Sacavém: 700 flats by 2035

The Sacavém project, called Clarissas, accounts for more than 300 million euros of the total. It is planned as about 700 apartments, from one to four bedrooms with some penthouses and duplexes, spread over ten plots and 37 buildings. It also includes about 9,000 square metres for shops and services and more than 30,000 square metres of green space and leisure areas.

The first visible step was the redevelopment of Praça da República in Sacavém, finished at the end of 2025 in partnership with Loures council. The project is now completing its paperwork: the environmental impact assessment is in its final stage, and the company expects to have all its permits by the end of March 2027 and to start selling in the second quarter of that year. Building will be done in phases, and the whole development is not due to be finished until 2035.

Carreira describes it as an attempt to create "a new integrated, sustainable neighbourhood open to the city".

Gaia Hills and Docks Matosinhos

Further along is Gaia Hills in Vila Nova de Gaia, budgeted at 120 million euros. It has 210 apartments, from one to five bedrooms, on four plots. The developer is also building a park of about 26,000 square metres there, which will be handed to the council for public use. The first phase started in September 2024 and the second this year, which Carreira says was a response to demand.

The smallest of the three, Docks Matosinhos, is a 12 million euro building of 31 flats due to be completed by the end of this year. All 31 sold within eight months, more than a year ago, and Portuguese buyers accounted for 77 percent of the sales, according to the company.

Who the flats are for

Thomas & Piron says it wants to keep investing in Portugal, with Greater Lisbon and Greater Porto as its priorities, because it sees "structural demand for housing" driven by jobs, services and transport links there. It is looking for sites close to the big urban centres where it can build at scale for what Carreira calls "the Portuguese middle class". No prices were given for Clarissas or Gaia Hills.

Besides Belgium and Portugal, the group works in France, Luxembourg, Morocco and Switzerland. It reported consolidated turnover of 954 million euros last year, up 10 percent on 2024, and EBITDA of 74 million euros, up 23 percent.

Why it matters

Portuguese house prices are rising faster than anywhere else in the EU. Large private schemes like Clarissas add supply, but slowly: if the timetable holds, the first Sacavém flats go on sale in mid-2027 and the last are finished almost a decade from now. Whether they end up within reach of middle-class buyers will depend on prices that have not yet been set.