Mencovaz, a leading name in Portuguese property valuation, has grown into a full-service consultancy, supporting institutions, investors, developers and private clients with a comprehensive range of real estate services.
Q: How have you grown the company’s remit?
We have two types of client: institutional clients that send us regular work, and one-time clients. Our goal was to grow and diversify. We started as a valuation company, but we then moved to providing other services, such as energy performance certificates, company valuation, equipment valuation, project monitoring and construction surveillance – all types of services related to consulting in real estate, except for brokerage.
We obtained various certifications, such as ISO 9001 for process quality management, and Recognised European Valuer (REV) certification from The European Group of Valuers’ Associations. We have four REV valuers, one of them being myself. When we develop any report, we don’t do it based on a success fee or any specific interest in deals; we do an impartial analysis of what is required.
Q: How does this service expansion shape your market positioning?
We started as a valuation company, which remains the core of our business. I would say that 90% of our income comes from valuation. For the other services we undertake, we want investors to start looking at us as a one-stop shop where they can do everything.
Q: What has been the impact on company performance?
Between 2015 and 2024, our income and roster of big clients have increased four to five times. The number of employees also went from five to 17. We are also expecting significant growth this year. Last year, for the first time, we achieved €2 million-worth of revenue. It might be ambitious, but we are aiming for €2.5 million this year.
Q: How did working with financial institutions prepare you for working with international clients?
They will look at valuations in different ways. A bank may ask for mortgage valuations based on conservative criteria, as demanded by the European Central Bank. Meanwhile, international investors want to know how they can extract revenue from a property. We learned these investment perspectives from clients who have been with us since 2014.
For example, when you work with a Portuguese bank, once they make the purchase, they just need to know where the building is located, and that’s it. However, working with a foreign investor meant we had to provide more information for the investor to feel safe. A German investor who has worked in Portugal for 20 years might already consider the country as a second home, but a new investor would find it hard to find trustworthy partners and partners who are on their side. For German investors, we want to be a trustworthy partner and produce high-quality work for them.
Q: How do you maintain agility in responding to clients?
We work with local experts who allow us to offer a quick response anywhere in the country, at all times. These local experts are typically civil engineers, architects or economists. This increases the quality of our network because we have partners who know what’s necessary to license a project in that specific town. We have extensive know-how in our wider network that helps us to respond to all the requests that we receive. It is crucial to have local support everywhere to ensure that you produce reliable work.
Q: How does your background in structural engineering shape your leadership style?
I have always been a perfectionist. As a structural engineer, the projects I participated in were large and multidisciplinary. If you don’t have the right coordination, you are just wasting time. It’s very important to have good coordination to make sure that you do it correctly the first time and that you don’t waste time unnecessarily – it is crucial to ensure the team works in a very coordinated way. Besides the 17 employees we have, we have our network of valuers in the field making visits and reports, and we have to ensure that everything and everyone is coordinating well, to ensure everyone is on the same page. I spend most of my time in coordination since we receive more than 100 requests per day, and we have to ensure everything is well coordinated or else we lose track.
Q: What is your long-term strategy for Mencovaz?
Our strategy today is the same as ten years ago, which is to grow. We want to grow our client base to expand our work and build a bigger team. I am an ambitious person, and I always want to grow, but how we do it will depend on wider trends because the national market is limited. We don’t work with everyone, but we already have a high point of penetration for potential clients. Going abroad might be the next step. Growing abroad and starting from scratch takes a long time, and as a 44-year-old, starting from scratch might not be for me anymore. However, I would consider expanding through a partnership.
In the next five years, I want us to grow while keeping everything that we have attained so far, with the same quality that we have today. Maintaining quality levels is a challenge because companies tend to reduce their quality when they grow. The more you grow, the more difficult it is to keep customer care quality high.
Q: What factors influenced Mencovaz being named Best Valuer by Banco Português de Investimento (BPI) in 2023?
I believe we won the award because BPI recognises exactly what we want our clients to perceive, which is that we have the best technical team that produces the most reliable information with the best and fastest answers.
