Although domestic investors continue to dominate the market internationalinvestment has also grown over the last year due to the rapid growth of openended real estate investment funds. 'There is still scope to growsignificantly over the next few years,' said SenGuptah, ' which, with animproving quality of product and prospects of significant rental growth islikely to see healthy activity in the Portuguese investment market over thenext few years.'

Office and retail development in Portugal are improving dramatically withtwo award winning shopping centres, the Colombo and Vasco da Gama, providinginvestments of international and institutional quality. The increasingsignificance of out of town retail and the growth of the hotel sector arealso expected to increase investment opportunities. Marriott is looking toexpand its operation throughout the country.

Many analysts believe that Portugal is undervalued in relation to other keyEuropean currencies and believe that it will not be long before this iscorrected. 'Investors in Portugal could therefore be presented with adouble-profit', said SenGuptah, 'firstly from direct earnings from propertyand secondly, from the revaluation of the euro.'