Cascais is where a large share of Lisbon's international community lives — a mix of villas, modern apartments and older townhouses along the coast, about half an hour west of the city.
Two things shape a Cascais move: distance and house type. Villas often mean more volume than a flat and a garden gate rather than a lift, while the coastal apartments are usually straightforward. The drive is priced as a fixed distance figure, agreed upfront — not as time on a meter sitting in traffic on the A5.
A villa is the one people underestimate. The house itself is straightforward, with wide doors and space to work, but the garage, the garden and the outbuilding often hold as much again as the living rooms. Garden pots with soil in them are heavy in a way nobody expects until they lift one.
The older townhouses in Cascais Velho are closer to Lisbon in character: narrow streets, stairs, sometimes no lift. The modern coastal apartments at the other end of the scale usually have a lift and a garage, and are among the quickest jobs we do anywhere.
Because the range is so wide, the video survey matters more here than in a neighbourhood where every building is the same. A quote given over the phone for a Cascais address is a guess.
This is the practical detail that catches people out. Câmara Municipal de Cascais lists moving house explicitly among the reasons for an occupation of public space application, and asks for it at least thirty days before the date. That is considerably stricter than Lisbon.
If you are arriving from abroad, the same rule catches people out — see our checklist for moving to Lisbon. So if your street genuinely needs a reserved space — the narrow lanes of the old town, or a villa with gates on a busy road — the timeline is set by the council rather than by us. Tell us at the survey and we will start it. Ask a week before and the honest answer is that we will work without a reserved space and plan the carry accordingly.
The drive is the other half. Thirty-five to forty-five minutes on a good run, considerably more when the A5 is not having a good run. That risk sits with us: the distance is quoted as a fixed figure agreed in advance, so traffic never reaches your invoice.
Two components. The move itself, priced on volume and access exactly as it would be in Lisbon, and a fixed distance amount for the journey — typically 60 to 90 € from central Lisbon, stated separately so you can see what you are paying for.
A whole villa is usually a full day and several trips rather than one. Inside the Lisbon–Cascais corridor a return leg is under an hour, which costs less than the alternative of a large truck that then cannot get near half the addresses on the coast.