Portugese property purchase worth E84k for E120K!

Are there any serious risks to buying a new property in Portugal costing E120,000 and paying E36,000 under the table to the estate agent?

I recently found a nice new 1 bed apartment near Albufeira for E120,000, went to the estate agent (reputable one with AMI number) and he immediately informed me that the builder will only declare it worth E84,000 (for tax purposes) meaning I must pay the remaining E36000 in cash! When I queried this, I was told that this was "Normal Practice".

Am I taking a big risk with this transaction? Are there consequences down the line if I go to re-sell? Has anyone had this experience?

Sure you know yourself its defrauding the portuguese revenue. And presumably if you were to sell down the line and the apartment appeared to go up in value from eighty four to whatever the sale price was you'd be rightly caught for capital gains. And thats quite apart from any potential fraud liabilities in portugal. I wouldnt touch this with a bargepole.

you cannot be seriously considering this? I'm hoping this is a wind up, but just in case...

If you or anyone is daft enough to pay cash under the table, then you must have more money than sence if you are ok with paying extra tax.

Simplified - if you pay 100k for a prop and 20k of that is under the table, then the builder has hte sale price to you as 80k.

You sell and get 200k for it.

But you will have to pay tax on 120k because the tax man thinks you only paid 80k.

I'm sure you get the picture by now.

Of course it's normal practice for developers and certain agents.

Its called a scam dear.