Princess Eugenie’s €4m CostaTerra Home: What It Means for Portugal Property

Royals, privacy and price tags: why Princess Eugenie’s move matters for property Portugal

Princess Eugenie and her family have quietly shifted a substantial slice of their lives to southern Portugal, and that matters for buyers and investors watching the Portugal property market. The headline is simple: their base is inside CostaTerra Golf & Ocean Club in Melides, Setúbal, where residences and plots are reported to start at around €4 million (about £3.6 million). That figure alone changes how people think about luxury housing in Portugal.

The decision by Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank to spend much of their time at CostaTerra — since 2022 — is part personal and part professional. Jack is working in marketing and sales for property entrepreneur Mike Meldman, who is managing a 300-home development in the area. For high-net-worth buyers, celebrity and royal residents are not merely gossip; they are a signal about amenity standards, privacy expectations and resale market dynamics.

In this piece we map what CostaTerra offers, how the site fits into the Setúbal coast, what the presence of royals means for demand, and what investors and buyers should check before committing to a resort purchase. Our analysis draws on the reported facts about the development and puts them in practical context for international buyers and expats.

What CostaTerra is and what it offers

CostaTerra markets itself as an exclusive coastal resort community anchored by luxury amenities and private club services. Reported facts about the project include:

• Developer/manager: Mike Meldman (Jack Brooksbank is working in marketing, sales and promotion)
• Scale: a 300-home development (still being built out)
• Reported starting price: around €4 million (c. £3.6 million) for homes/plots
• Key amenities: an 18-hole golf course, spa, equestrian centre, a private beach of about a mile, and water-sport options such as surf lessons, paddle boarding and catamaran trips for dolphin watching

CostaTerra is being positioned in media and by promoters as a Portuguese equivalent of the Hamptons, a phrase that captures a specific idea: a private, seasonal yet year-round community where wealthy buyers can own a second home with club services and social networks. That tag will attract buyers from the UK, continental Europe and beyond.

Types of real estate on offer

The development is reported to include a mix of product types:

• Custom villa plots and large estate homesites
• Contemporary coastal villas
• Turnkey club residences
• Custom luxury homes

This mix is typical of high-end resort developments where some buyers want a compact lock-and-leave residence while others prefer to commission bespoke homes on larger plots.

Why royals choose CostaTerra: privacy, lifestyle and practicalities

From the reports, the move by Eugenie and Jack is a deliberate lifestyle decision. Several practical motives stand out:

• Privacy and pace: Eugenie has described life in Portugal on a podcast as “the dream,” valuing simple family outings without constant attention. For royals who remain in the public eye, a coastal community that emphasises privacy and private-club rules is attractive.
• Family lifestyle: The couple’s two sons, August and Ernest, are young, and CostaTerra offers outdoor activities, beach access and family-oriented amenities, which matter to parents who want space and lower-profile daily life.
• Work opportunity: Jack’s role promoting a major resort development is a practical reason to base the family in the region. That employment link reduces the friction of moving and gives the family a professional anchor in Portugal.

High-profile visitors add cachet to the development. Reports note that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visited after the 2024 Invictus Games, and media discussion has touched on whether Eugenie’s mother, Sarah, Duchess of York, could spend time there. Celebrity and royal presence is a double-edged sword: it can increase desirability and prices but also brings attention, contradicting the very privacy sought by some buyers.

What Eugenie’s residency signals for the Portugal real estate market

When well-known figures take up residence in a new high-end development, the effects are clear and measurable in market psychology even if precise figures are not public. From our perspective, the main implications are:

• A repositioning of the Setúbal coast as a credible luxury alternative to Lisbon and parts of the Algarve for wealthy buyers who value privacy and space.
• Increased international attention for projects that combine beachfront access with country-club amenities.
• Potential uplift in marketing reach: developers can leverage high-profile residents to attract similar buyers, particularly from the UK market.

That said, this kind of signaling does not automatically translate into broad-based gains across the Portuguese housing market. Luxury resort property behaves differently from urban residential property in Lisbon or Porto: liquidity is lower, buyer profiles are narrower, and price movements are more sensitive to international wealth flows and lifestyle trends.

Investment perspective: opportunities and realities

For investors attracted by the glamour, there are plausible reasons to consider CostaTerra and similar developments. But there are also limits.

Opportunities:

• Premium, owner-occupied second homes tend to preserve value when demand from wealthy buyers is robust.
• Resort communities with extensive amenities and professional management can command higher service-fee income and premium resale prices compared with non-managed coastal plots.
• If the developer successfully builds a community with genuine private-club services, long-term desirability is possible among affluent buyers.

Realities and constraints:

• Liquidity: Ultra-high-end properties can take longer to sell. The pool of buyers at the €4m+ band is much smaller than the mainstream market.
• Development risk: CostaTerra is being built out.