Retiring in Portugal

[homestead]

Enjoyed watching this video of my son's ex CEO who was retiring and going to portugal and choosing a new home there.

Video

 

[Souschef]

Funny- we watched that program yesterday. We spent a few days in Portugal and loved it. The area a little further north around Cascais, Sintra and Estoril is beautiful.
Many expatriates living there.
Edit: I added our trip story that includes Lisbon, Portimau and Cascais

 

[Chuckanut]

Try this modest hovel near Sintra. Lots of space, but also a lot of stairs.

 

[Letj]

Thanks for posting. We are looking into Portugal as our retirement destination in a couple of years.

 

[Bamaman]

But how are you going to get a Visa? Americans per the Schengen Agreement are prohibited from spending more than 90 days out of 180 days without paying large fines.

Visas are limited mostly to students and exclude refrigerator for the most part.

 

[braumeister]

Portugal is one of the easier countries to get residency in.

 

[tmm99]

Thank you for posting this. I must say that I'm a bit nervous for her...
Hard to say if she'll survive being away from her children.

 

[flyingaway]

Those are expensive houses in Portugal. I though they should have houses of half of those prices to be competitive, especially one does not speak their language.

 

[rocketjockey]

But how are you going to get a Visa? Americans per the Schengen Agreement are prohibited from spending more than 90 days out of 180 days without paying large fines.

Visas are limited mostly to students and exclude refrigerator for the most part.

Google "Portuguese Golden Visa". Lots of ways to get permanent residency. Portugal looking to encourage wealthy foreigners to bring their money.

 

[explanade]

I'm looking forward to visiting and seeing what it's like.

The south around Faro appears to have moderate weather even in March and August and it's dry too.

The north around Porto and inland are said to be very wet.

But you wonder about their fiscal situation. No other country has gotten in as bad a state as Greece but Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain are lumped in as the sickly economies of Western Europe.

 

[explanade]

Google "Portuguese Golden Visa". Lots of ways to get permanent residency. Portugal looking to encourage wealthy foreigners to bring their money.

I think there are retirement visas offered by other EU countries too, like Italy.

But if you bring in money to the country, they would probably tax it? That's even before you get into their health care system.

It sounded like a lot of red tape too, when it came to buying property and opening a bank account, especially for Americans.

I don't know if Portugal is a lot better than Italy in these regards.

 

[davebarnes]

Portugal’s Golden Visa requires you to spend just €350K on a 30+ year old house.
Citizenship in 6 years.
Cost of living is 2/3 USA.
Português is more difficult than Español.
Many people speak English, sadly.

I loved my 3 week vacation this Fall.

 

[Nemo2]

Why not just go there and rent?

 

[davebarnes]

Why not just go there and rent?

Because you have leave periodically.

 

[explanade]

Portugal’s Golden Visa requires you to spend just €350K on a 30+ year old house.
Citizenship in 6 years.
Cost of living is 2/3 USA.
Português is more difficult than Español.
Many people speak English, sadly.

I loved my 3 week vacation this Fall.

Does citizenship include getting into their health care system?

Or if you get Portuguese citizenship, are you going to have to fly back to the US to get health care in the US via Medicare?

 

[Nemo2]

Because you have leave periodically.

I understand......I was first in Portugal in 1963, (long before Schengen, I know), and have been there a few times over the subsequent years........

I didn't bother to watch much of the video...(and perhaps I missed something)...but what little I did watch suggested (to me anyway), that these people were maybe more tuned into the idea of being an expat than the reality.

So....perhaps rent....go to a non-Schengen country....Croatia, Montenegro, Bulgaria...when your 90 days are due...rent there...come back.

Just make SURE you want to live there full time.

 

[explanade]

Tricky thing about short-term rentals is whether you have to open your own utilities accounts and that often requires having a bank account.

 

[Nemo2]

Tricky thing about short-term rentals is whether you have to open your own utilities accounts and that often requires having a bank account.

I recall talking to a Brit in a smaller centre outside Lisbon, circa 1986/7, (been there a few times since then), who said that a number of Brit expats, who 'bought cheap' there, wanted to return to England, but the English housing market had passed them by and they couldn't afford to go back.

I'd just suggest taking things slowly and not jumping in with both feet, (and a bunch of money), before really knowing what is being undertaken.

 

[explanade]

Not only that Brit expats in places like Spain don't want to go back.

Someone interviewed some of them because they didn't know the ramifications of Brexit.

Cost of living, better weather and there were large expat communities so that was their new home and had been for decades in the case of some.

 

[kcowan]

We met some Brits in Antequera who had relocated from the coast to get away from empty condos that were overrun by fellow Brits in the summer. We were on the Costa del Sol in October and it was mainly Brits on the beach.

 

[brett]

My step SIL and BIL recently retired. They own a home in London but most recently lived in Dubai.

They are both extremely astute business people who have lived and worked in various parts of the world.

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.

We travelled in Portugal and in Spain. Our strong preference is Portugal. The people seem much friendlier. We find that in certain areas of Spain the expat community overshadows the local charm. Too many pubs, fish and chip shops, Yorkie bars, expat newspapers etc and an entirely different attitude/feel than those places where expats have done a better job of integrating into the local environment.

 

[explanade]

British hen and stag partiers are pretty hard to be around, aren't they?

 

[Nemo2]

Yorkie bars.

Those little dogs have their own saloons?

 

[ncbill]

Portugal’s Golden Visa requires you to spend just €350K on a 30+ year old house.
Citizenship in 6 years.
Cost of living is 2/3 USA.
Português is more difficult than Español.
Many people speak English, sadly.

Wow that's expensive.

Much cheaper to do like another forum poster and move to Mexico on a FM-3 visa.

And easily travel back to the U.S. for advanced medical treatment, especially for those already on Medicare.

 

[Nemo2]

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.