Maleo Unveils Plug-and-Play Flats for Executives in Lisbon’s Lumiar

Global executives heading for Lisbon may soon find an address ready-made for them in an unlikely corner of the capital. Property operator Maleo Offices—best known for transforming drab office blocks into buzzy work hubs—has decided to take on the city’s most intractable headache: soaring corporate rents. Its answer, branded Maleo Living, debuts later this year in Lumiar with a €4 M price tag and ambitions that reach far beyond one building.

A fresh twist on “corporate living”

The Lumiar property will house 38 furnished T1 and T2 apartments, leased exclusively to companies rather than individual tenants. Maleo insists the concept is neither a co-living dorm nor a boutique hotel. Instead, the firm wants to create a private, plug-and-play residential option: fully managed leases, housekeeping on demand, and contracts calibrated to typical project lengths of 3-18 months. The first tranche—only 10-12 flats—should open before year-end, giving the company room to fine-tune the service before scaling.

Why the northern edge of Lisbon?

Seasoned expats often skip Lumiar, a traditionally quiet freguesia north of the city centre. Yet recent metro extensions, leafy campuses and proximity to the emerging tech corridor along Avenida Padre Cruz have pushed the neighbourhood onto corporate radars. Average asking rents here already hover around €1 350 for a one-bed flat—half of what employers pay in tourist-heavy parishes downtown—while vacant stock is thin on the ground. Maleo secured its plot before prices spiked, banking on predictable access to the yellow and soon-to-be-expanded green metro lines to keep commute times reasonable for tenants destined for offices in Saldanha or Parque das Nações.

The pressure cooker of Lisbon’s housing market

For HR directors relocating staff, finding a roof has become as complicated as securing a residence visa. Property portal data show citywide rents rising roughly 2.4 % per quarter in 2025; brokers now warn newcomers to budget €20-23 €/m² for long-term leases. Portugal’s labour ministry has even started asking companies sponsoring overseas hires to prove they can offer “habitação digna”—dignified housing—before work permits are rubber-stamped. That bureaucratic twist, plus new caps on short-stay licences, has turbo-charged demand for serviced apartments where compliance paperwork is already bundled in.

From coworking to full-stack real estate

Maleo’s pivot did not happen in a vacuum. Since landing in Portugal five years ago the group has poured more than €10 M into eight flexible office centres across Lisbon and Porto, courting a client roster that reads like a Fortune 500 index—Visa, Salesforce, Bain & Company and Amgen among them. Chief executive Nishel Rajani argues that extending the brand into housing is a logical step: “The same firms telling us how many desks they need are now pleading for beds,” he told investors at a July briefing. Analysts say the model could generate higher yields than classic rentals; serviced units often command 6-10 % returns versus the 3-5 % typical for conventional lets.

Will a single project move the needle?

A €4 M block of flats cannot solve Lisbon’s structural shortage, yet specialists see Maleo’s entry as a pivotal signal. Institutional capital has largely ignored mid-term accommodation, focusing instead on luxury buy-to-let or tourist apartments. If Maleo can prove that “corporate living” delivers steady occupancy and lower churn, pension funds may follow suit—unlocking a pipeline of similar schemes in Porto, Braga or even the Algarve’s budding tech parks.

What foreigners should watch next

The developer says municipal permitting is “in the final stretch,” but until the Lisbon Câmara grants its last-mile construction licence, earth movers will stay idle. Prospective tenants—especially those hired by Maleo’s existing office clients—should start lobbying HR teams now, because the first keys are expected to be rationed internally. For everyone else, the project will serve as a bellwether: if Maleo Living fills up before the paint dries, expect rival platforms such as AltoVita, Apartool and Joivy to accelerate their own Portuguese pipelines. In a market where supply is king, that ripple effect could finally give incoming talent a fighting chance at a stable, reasonably priced lease.