In 2025, franchising continued to grow in Portugal and real estate mediation was among the sectors with the most new units. The numbers reveal the growth, but not what sustains it. In real estate, what sustains a unit is the productivity of consultants. The KW model was built around that: Market Centers with more than a hundred consultants, supported by training and technology models and systems.
The growth of franchising in Portugal in 2025
According to the Associação Portuguesa de Franchising (APF), franchising in Portugal reached a business volume of €23 billion in 2025, 3% more than in 2024.
Real estate mediation recorded a net balance of +35 units, the third largest, after services and companies (+44) and construction and renovation (+36).
Why real estate mediation grows in franchising
Real estate mediation is a fragmented market. According to IMPIC, there are more than 11,500 licensed companies for the activity in Portugal.
In such a dispersed market, an independent company has to build its brand, processes, training and technology on its own. The choice of franchising indicates that more entrepreneurs prefer to enter the sector through a network that already has these systems.
For the investor, the essential question is different: what does each franchise transfer and how does it generate revenue?
The KW model: revenue comes from consultant productivity
In the KW Market Center, revenue comes from consultant productivity. Each consultant delivers to the Market Center a share of each commission, until reaching the cap: the maximum value of commissions delivered to the Market Center. The Operating Principal's profitability therefore depends on attracting, developing and retaining consultants.
The Capper is the consultant who has reached the cap. From that moment, and until a new 12-month cycle is completed, they retain 98% of the commission. For the Market Center, retaining a Capper means retaining its top producers.
KW calls this the interdependent model. Each consultant owns their own business, built within the Market Center, the ecosystem that provides the structure, systems, training and technology. When the consultant grows, the Market Center as a whole grows.
The scale of the KW Market Center vs traditional agencies
This logic leads to a scale that distinguishes the Market Center: more than a hundred consultants in a single operation. In the traditional agency model, growing typically means opening more branches, each with its own fixed costs. Scale has three consequences for investors.
Diluted fixed costs. Each new productive consultant increases revenue without increasing fixed costs in the same proportion.
A leadership structure that only scale justifies. The Market Center operates with its own organisational model that includes 4 leadership roles: Operating Principal, Team Leader, Market Center Administrator and Productivity Coach. A structure that is hard to maintain with few consultants, but which acts as a magnet for attracting the best talent in the market.
Concentrated talent. It may be intuitive, but at KW we find that larger operations also mean higher productivity. Being alongside the best makes us better through training, exchange of experience and a productivity culture that attracts new consultants. See KW Portugal's numbers.
The KW systems that sustain scale: training and technology
What the KW franchise transfers to the franchisee is not just a brand. It is a system for leading a consultant business at Market Center scale. In return, KW receives royalties on turnover.
Training. Investors tend to underestimate training, but it is the criterion that most reflects in results: continuously trained consultants are more productive, and more productive consultants grow the Market Center. At Keller Williams, everything is built on internationally tested business models that define what to do, in what order and with what metrics. These models reach the entire structure, from consultants starting their careers to the leadership team, and the future Operating Principal is prepared and supported by KW Portugal from before opening.
Those who teach are professionals who apply the models in the field. Through the KW University ecosystem, each Market Center has its own Trainer Pool, chosen from leadership, the Top 20 Consultants and Cappers, joined at national level by certified trainers and the Master Faculty, all recertified annually. Training Magazine ranked Keller Williams as #1 in training, among companies from all sectors, in 2015 and 2017, and inducted it into the Training Top 10 Hall of Fame in 2018.
Technology. KW Command brings together contacts, campaigns and performance analysis in a single ecosystem, allowing leadership to monitor the performance of the entire operation.
Management models. The Market Center applies the models and systems that KW uses globally. In the USA, 182 of the 500 largest real estate brokerages by sales volume in 2025 are KW affiliates (36.4%), according to RealTrends Verified 2026. For KW, this result is a sign of the strength and scale of the model that each Market Center replicates.
Growth Share. Growth Share is a mechanism for sharing the Market Center's growth with those who contribute to it: whenever a consultant closes deals, a portion of that value is distributed through their sponsorship tree, up to seven levels above. Because it depends on the actual production of consultants, it works as a talent attraction and retention mechanism.
Who we are looking for and where we are opening
An Operating Principal is always an investor in the Market Center, but an investor may not be an Operating Principal. KW defines that each Market Center has an Operating Principal dedicated full-time, because they are the ones who attract, develop and retain the consultants on whom the scale of the operation depends.
KW Portugal has active expansion in Porto, Setúbal, Évora and Odivelas, among others. Learn about KW and the Market Center model, and talk to the KW Portugal expansion team.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Capper and what impact does it have on the Market Center's economics? A Capper is the consultant who has reached the cap, the maximum value of commissions delivered to the Market Center. From that moment, and until a new 12-month cycle is completed, they retain 98% of the commission on subsequent transactions. For the Market Center, retaining a Capper means retaining its top producers.
Is Growth Share a guaranteed income for the franchisee? No. It is a mechanism for sharing the Market Center's growth with those who contribute to it, distributed through a sponsorship tree of up to seven levels. It always depends on the actual production of consultants in that tree: without production, there is no distribution.
Sources
- Franchising fatura 23 mil ME em 2025 e cria 60 mil empregos (RTP Notícias)
- Sector do Franchising criou 60 mil novos postos de trabalho em Portugal (HR Portugal)
- Mediação imobiliária: número de queixas dispara e atinge máximo (idealista/news, com dados do IMPIC)
- Keller Williams inducted into Training Magazine's Hall of Fame (Keller Williams Realty)
- Training magazine Ranks 2017 Training Top 125 Organizations (Training Magazine)
Co-founder and Regional Owner of Keller Williams in Portugal since 2014. Leads the network's national expansion, Market Center development and the rollout of the KW model in the Portuguese market.