Property virtual tours in Portugal: what they cost, how long they take and where to publish them

For an estate agency in Portugal, a virtual tour of a property costs from a few hundred to a few thousand euros, is ready in days, and goes onto Idealista, Imovirtual and the agency's own site with a single link. The catch is that each portal has its own rules, and a badly made tour makes a home look worse than it is. This guide gathers what an agency needs to know before ordering its first tour, or switching supplier.

What a property virtual tour costs

The figures in our virtual tour pricing guide apply here. For real estate, in practice:

• 3D capture (Matterport) of a flat or house: between €300 and €1,500, depending on floor area and number of rooms.
• 360° tour in professional photography: in the same range, with more capture work and a much better image.
• Tour with the agency's branding, buttons and data: €1,500 to €5,000, usually for developments or whole portfolios, not for a two-bedroom flat.

What moves the price: square metres, number of rooms, outdoor areas and gardens, travel, and hosting. Hosting is the cost people forget: platforms such as Matterport charge a monthly plan to keep tours online, and a tour that has been switched off is a broken link in the listing.

How long it takes

A flat is captured in a morning; a large house can take the day. Then comes image processing and publishing, which takes days, not weeks. What usually slows things down is not the camera but a house that isn't ready. Before the capture, the agency or the owner should:

• switch on every light and open blinds and curtains;
• clear worktops, bathrooms and entrances;
• remove family photos, documents and anything that identifies the residents;
• make sure nobody is home during the capture, not even in the mirrors.

The last two points are not only about looks. A recognisable face in a photo is personal data under the GDPR, and a tour of an occupied home shows far more of someone's life than a handful of photos.

Where to publish the tour

Idealista

On Idealista, the agency adds the tour under «Os teus imóveis», by editing the listing, in the «Multimédia» tab, in the «Links multimédia» field. Each listing takes one 3D tour and one 360° tour, and the link has to come from a provider the portal supports, according to Idealista's help pages. The list of providers is not public: check with your account manager before ordering. Listings with a tour show up under the «visita virtual» filter, which the portal launched in 2020, and that is where many remote buyers start.

Imovirtual

On Imovirtual, the tour link goes in the section just below the photos, when creating or editing a listing, and it can also come in through the CRM feed. According to Imovirtual's help, it must be an https link that opens that property's tour directly. A page holding several tours or videos may be rejected. Videos only go in through YouTube or Vimeo.

Other portals and networks

Casa Sapo, SuperCasa and the franchise networks' own sites have rules that are not publicly documented. Before assuming they accept the tour, check with the portal.

The agency's own site

This is where the tour works hardest, because it is yours: it goes into the listing page with an iframe, under the agency's brand rather than the supplier's. Idealista itself says the tour link can be used on the agency's own site, but not on third-party sites. It is also where buttons inside the tour make sense, such as «book a viewing» or «request the floor plan», and where you can measure which rooms people look at most, which is what we do with VRBox.

The sales agent, before the in-person viewing

The most profitable use of a virtual tour is not on any portal: it is the link the agent sends to every qualified lead before booking the in-person viewing. Whoever turns up has already walked the house, and whoever disliked the kitchen doesn't take up an afternoon of the team's time.

360° or 3D?

• 3D (Matterport): gives you measurements. Useful when the buyer or an architect needs to know whether the sofa fits, or for renovation work.
• 360° in professional photography: a better image and far more that can be programmed into it. For selling, it is almost always the right choice.

We explain the difference in more detail in virtual tours for real estate: what works and what is just a gimmick, and show both side by side in virtual tours on construction sites.

The tour has to show the home as it is

A virtual tour is advertising for the property, and Portugal's Advertising Code is clear: advertising must respect the truth and not distort the facts. Correcting the light is image processing. Removing a damp stain, a crack or the building across from the window is not. And Idealista's multimedia page points out that, under the EU AI Act, since August 2026 photos edited with AI must be labelled as such.

The numbers, honestly

The data that exists comes almost entirely from the portals themselves. In 2021, Idealista said listings with multimedia services received 92% more contacts than listings without them, but that figure lumps video, tours and other services together. In the United States, Zillow reports 49% more saves and 43% more page views for homes with an interactive 3D floor plan. That is data from the people selling the service, and we found no independent study confirming it. Our own experience points the same way, with one caveat: the tour does not sell the house on its own. It helps people who are already interested decide faster.

If you are an estate agency or a developer and want virtual tours working across your portfolio, talk to us.

FAQ

Can I add a virtual tour to an Idealista listing?

Yes. In «Os teus imóveis», edit the listing and paste the link into the «Links multimédia» field in the «Multimédia» tab. Each listing takes one 3D tour and one 360° tour, from a provider the portal supports.

How much does a virtual tour of a flat cost?

Usually between €300 and €1,500 for the capture, depending on floor area, number of rooms and the type of tour. Also budget for the monthly hosting of the platform that keeps the tour online.

Do I need permission to make a virtual tour of an occupied home?

You need the agreement of the owner and of whoever lives there. And it is wise to remove or hide anything that identifies the residents, such as photos, documents and the people themselves, because a recognisable face is personal data under the GDPR.