Retiring in Portugal

[daylatedollarshort]

They recently bought a retirement home in Spain and are in the process of renovating it. The Spanish property market has started to recover over the past eighteen months and it seems that Brits are in fact part of that resurgence.

I'm surprised there is a resurgence in a post-Brexit environment. Do you know if it is for holiday homes or year round living?

 

[Souschef]

One of my gripes about that show is the people want to spend more money to have a guest room for an occasional guest. I think it would be far cheaper to buy a smaller place and put any guest up at a nearby hotel.

 

[Nemo2]

One of my gripes about that show is the people want to spend more money to have a guest room for an occasional guest. I think it would be far cheaper to buy a smaller place and put any guest up at a nearby hotel.

Again, the wife......the husband made a comment to the effect that "That's what hotels are for".

(My DW said that she didn't think they'd be together too long if/when they moved to Portugal.)

 

[rodi]

Nemo - I think I agree with your wife... I think that couple won't survive after the move... the move is his idea and she didn't seem to have fully bought in.

I was cracking up at her aesthetic declarations about style from her perspective as an interior designer. Since she made her living telling people how to *change* design... she seemed clueless that you could apply that to your own space.

 

[tmm99]

DW, who holds her own opinions, watched the vid.....her impressions:



- The wife appeared to be under the illusion (delusion?) that they'd be having family visit them frequently, (at first, perhaps, but long term, from Oregon IIRC?)



- Again, the wife, seemed to think she'd be having regular trips to Starbucks, or somesuch, for her morning coffee



- Also...the wife....appeared more concerned about the house decor, (we realize it was a 'house show' but still), than the fact that they were contemplating transatlantic relocation to a place where they were foreigners who didn't speak the language and probably didn't understand the culture.



Nothing insurmountable, but it did seem slightly surreal to both of us.

At the beginning of the show, the host said she was an interior decorator by trade, so it made sense to me that she cared how it looked inside the house, but her husband's comment that he was happy she didn't spend too much money on furnishing the place, was definitely un-classy. It was obvious that she was, for whatever reason, deferring to her husband's ways. When I saw her in tears talking about being so far from her children, I thought to myself, wow, I hope it's going to be worth it for her.

 

[tmm99]

Nemo - I think I agree with your wife... I think that couple won't survive after the move... the move is his idea and she didn't seem to have fully bought in.

I was cracking up at her aesthetic declarations about style from her perspective as an interior designer. Since she made her living telling people how to *change* design... she seemed clueless that you could apply that to your own space.

Well, I thought it looked good, considering the budget she might have had to adhere to, from what her husband said LOL.

Yeah, I'm in the same camp as you and Nemo.

 

[orangehairfella]

The "Golden Visa" is only required if you, for some reason, need a fast track to permanent residency.

Otherwise you just apply for a regular old 1 year visa by proving you have income to support yourself, health insurance, accommodation and that you aren't a criminal. That visa is renewable in 2 year increments. After 5 years you can apply for permanent residency.

It would appear that the income requirements are fairly small:

http://en.portugalinsf.com/images/PortugueseVisaRequirements.pdf

 

[ejman]

Again, the wife......the husband made a comment to the effect that "That's what hotels are for".

(My DW said that she didn't think they'd be together too long if/when they moved to Portugal.)

Having lived overseas in several different locations with my wife and kids I sure didn't get the impression that this transition would survive very long. From the cold reality of adapting to a different culture/language to the sort of unwritten expectation on her part that everyone from back home would just come over and visit all the time. Unless they have unlimited funds to buy a whole bunch of tickets for family and friends it is not going to happen.

 

[braumeister]

Another thing that struck me was the casual comment "Of course we'd have to learn the language."

Portuguese is a beautiful language but it's not easy to learn, especially for people their age.

 

[explanade]

Wouldn't most people gravitate towards the expat communities?

 

[Nemo2]

Wouldn't most people gravitate towards the expat communities?

Late 1988 my late wife & I, along with a friend and his now late wife, took our final R&R from Saudi, (a quickie & cheapie), to what was then touted as 'the unspoiled part of the Spanish Med coast'........a beachside village near Mojácar.

It turned out to be a Brit expat ghetto, similar to that which brett described in post #21.....Brit pubs, Brit this, Brit that, Brit cafes serving such abominations as 'mushy peas'.........."Pass me a razor blade, I'll bare my arms and slash my wrists now!"

Which is why, when DW and I travel, we search for little studios in the old sections of town where people from there live......we don't come all that way to hang with people we'd likely avoid at home.

 

[explanade]

No you don't want to live with people who are on holiday.

But I can't imagine all expats are looking to party, rather than live a normal every day life.

Or does the weather make people all behave the same?

 

[kcowan]

No you don't want to live with people who are on holiday.

But I can't imagine all expats are looking to party, rather than live a normal every day life.

Or does the weather make people all behave the same?

No the holiday visitors are looking to party but us full-timers are attending to household chores. We eat out about once a week, sometimes to another's house.

Once in a while we meet with partiers, maybe once every 2 weeks during the high season.

 

[Sunset]

Nemo - I think I agree with your wife... I think that couple won't survive after the move... the move is his idea and she didn't seem to have fully bought in.

I was cracking up at her aesthetic declarations about style from her perspective as an interior designer. Since she made her living telling people how to *change* design... she seemed clueless that you could apply that to your own space.

+1
She is going to suffer a lot, and fly back home often.
And it seemed her idea of design was pretty simplistic: Modern and White.

Hey, they might be on this site .. and reading these comments.

 

[jim584672]

They are going to be cold with no central heating. The places seem very pricey to me.

 

[Music Lover]

I know a couple that only moved an hour out of the city when they retired and within a year they were complaining that "no one comes to visit us anymore". So, to expect regular visitors when you're on a different continent is wishful thinking. Most likely what will happen is that a very small number of their family/friends will make the trip across the ocean, but it will probably be a "one off" trip/major vacation likely combined with other destinations, and they'll be lucky to see them again within 10 years, if at all.

 

[brett]

SIL/BIL have a flat in London that they have rented out for the past four years while in Dubai.

To answer the OP's question, they bought a flat in Valencia and it will be their primary residence. This is not a temporary or seasonal second home.

 

[kcowan]

I know a couple that only moved an hour out of the city when they retired and within a year they were complaining that "no one comes to visit us anymore". So, to expect regular visitors when you're on a different continent is wishful thinking. Most likely what will happen is that a very small number of their family/friends will make the trip across the ocean, but it will probably be a "one off" trip/major vacation likely combined with other destinations, and they'll be lucky to see them again within 10 years, if at all.

Our friends in Vancouver built a big house to accommodate their parents from the East. One trip each and then they were left with a too large house for the two of them.

 

[FIREd]

Having lived overseas in several different locations with my wife and kids I sure didn't get the impression that this transition would survive very long. From the cold reality of adapting to a different culture/language to the sort of unwritten expectation on her part that everyone from back home would just come over and visit all the time. Unless they have unlimited funds to buy a whole bunch of tickets for family and friends it is not going to happen.

Based on my own experience, I agree with that. "Everyone back home will come and visit all the time" is generally a fallacy when you live on another continent. If I did not make the effort to go back "home" every single year to visit family, I'd see them once a decade if that. My mom and sister have not made the trip across the ocean to come visit me in 17 years (!), partly because they don't have much money and partly because they don't like to travel much. My dad both has the willingness and the means to travel and has come to visit several times. But now that he has visited everything he wanted in the area, he would rather go elsewhere on vacation! I can't blame him for that.

 

[ReadySetGo]

Thanks for sharing. I hope they are doing well there.

 

[Euroland]

I have missed watching HI. I've never understood why people jump in and buy a house in a place they visited for just a few days. We have met at least 4 people who bought, then got stuck with the house (Spain) because selling can take years. There are so many things to think about being in a finca like they are away from the center. Everything gets magnified when you don't speak the language. We have been in Spain for almost 3 years now on the expat experiment. Malaga, Seville and now Valencia which we are loving so far. Anyway, they should have rented first and gotten the long stay visa as retirees (proof of income, about 25,000 euro per year, year lease and health insurance coverage which would cost roughly 100 euro per month for both of them). At the end of the year visa, the next one is for 2 years. You can get citizenship after 5 years l believe, might be 6. Just in case anyone wants to post more episodes, l would be happy. They have cracked down on Kodi [emoji17].

 

[explanade]

A lot of the HHI episodes are in fact rentals.

And in most cases, the people featured have moved on to another country or moved back.

Many of the younger people who go on HHI are bloggers or people who try to cultivate a social media following. So they have blogs, YouTube channels, etc.

They will post about their HHI experience but they're often blogging about traveling all the time. Whatever story they tell on HHI is often different from their reality.

Producers will have one person want to live in center, the other in the suburbs with more space, one likes modern while the other likes character, one wants to stay on budget while the other is willing to spend more, etc.

 

[ItDontMeanAThing]

Because you have leave periodically.

That's true for travelers.

For those seeking residence, such as myself, first you apply for a Residence Visa in your home country. Upon arriving in Portugal, you exchange that for a Temporary Residence Permit. Months later, when SEF has worked through the backlog, you apply to have that turned into a Residence Permit.

I'm a little fuzzy on the next part because it's far in the future, but IIRC after one year you apply for a 2 year permit. After 2 years, you apply for a 5 year Permit, then it's 5 year permits after that. Permanent residency and citizenship are possible.

 

[ItDontMeanAThing]

But if you bring in money to the country, they would probably tax it?

Portugal established NHR (Non-Habitual Residency) to attract 2 types of foreigners: retirees with enough assets, and those on the list of work skills the country needs. For pensioners, during your first 10 years the pension (we call it SS) is not taxed, nor are some other types of income IF both are subject to tax in your home country and neither are from a Portuguese source.

 

[ItDontMeanAThing]

Wow that's expensive.

It's not unusual for a country to offer 2 paths to a residence visa, with one of them being quick, easy and expensive.