Portugal property fair SIL returns in October

SIL 2020 – Portugal’s annual property fair — is back and will run this year from 8-11 October.

The 23rd edition of the largest property fair in the country will again be hosted at its usual venue at Lisbon’s former Expo98 site – Parque das Nações. Following on from the success of the 22nd edition of SIL last year which received around 24,000 visitors and 380 exhibitors — this year’s fair, which faced being postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, has dates set between 8-11 October at the Feira Internacional de Lisboa (FIL) at Parque das Nações.
It means that like in 2019, SIL will run over four days instead of the customary five days that it has run in past years.
According to information on the SIL website, special conditions and discounts are available for companies that booked their stand spaces up until 22 May.
It will be recalled that the 2019 edition saw the number of Portuguese real estate developers attending increase by 72.12% while the presence of estate agency firms was up 7.6%.
“We are all focused on organising the Portugal Real Estate Fair ( Salão Imobiliário de Portugal (SIL) from 8-11 October and we’re doing everything to ensure that it now goes ahead,” says Sandra Fragoso, Director of SIL, of the fair which this year will be run in tandem with Tektónica – the international building and construction fair — which was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sandra Fragoso adds that if this year’s Portugal Real Estate Fair gets postponed, it would be “very damaging for the sector.”
“In a year that is not been typical and with all the consequences on the economy, we saw a great opportunity to put on SIL and Tektónica at the same time, joining sectors that complement each other in so many ways and can provide various synergies to create a hybrid model.
It is a new business model for an event open to both exhibitors, industry professionals and the public, one that will obey all the rules set out by the Portuguese Directorate-General of Health (DGS) with a strong technological component which will enable us to reach a wider range of target market who are interested in discovering companies and what they have to offer and take part in various activities — conferences, meetings and awards ceremonies, among others,” adds Sandra Fragoso.
It will be a SIL with exhibitors, visitors, conferences, but also a SIL with new ways of taking part, with high-quality solutions that will enable SIL to better fulfil its main mission of boosting and leveraging the businesses in all the segments of the sector, presenting all the partners and exhibitors with a hybrid SIL that will attract more national and international buyers.
And even of SIL 2020 gets postponed until 2021 in case of a spike in Covid-19 numbers or the inability of overseas exhibitors and guests to travel to Portugal, then the organisers have a trump up their sleeves.
“We are working with official entities so as to ensure all the conditions, procedures, and necessary precautions required to undertake our events in safety taking into consideration the current context of the pandemic,” says Sandra Fragoso.
The exhibition complex of pavilions FIL recently won the distinction ‘Safe Travels’ which is a certification that proves it has complied with all the recommended health and hygiene rules which it will be obeying for all events being held from September onwards.
Sandra Fragoso says that it represents a huge challenge for the Fundação AIP (Portuguese Industrial Association Foundation) to organise an event as large as SIL, which in fact is the largest trade fair event on the Iberian peninsula.
“We will ensure the best conditions to reestablish business promotion and that of products and services for both International buyers and visitors through ‘web-buyers’.
As to feedback from participating exhibitor companies about the event given the pandemic, Sandra Fragoso admits that some have been apprehensive, but says that the organisation will ensure that all necessary precautions are taken to maintain health and hygiene norms and says it is vital the event takes place given its enormous importance to the sector in Portugal.
“The feedback we’ve had so far has been positive, of course it will be a different SIL to usual, but the two main pillars of our DNA are there: networking and business, and that’s our goal”.