You have decided to move to sunny Portugal, Congratulations for a great decision made!
Me and my family moved here ourselves from Sweden 6 years ago, and so far it has been a great decision for us.
Why, you say?!
Well to mention a few reasons why we love our new home country:
1. The weather (it is not just more pleasant to have 300 days of sun a year, it is also providing a better quality of life, more outdoor activities all year around)
2. Portugal is a very family friendly country. And for us having three kids, this makes the daily life so much easier, as kids are always welcome everywhere.
So, if you are where we were 6 years ago, then keep watching this video as I am sharing our moving to Portugal story. I will throw in a few tips and things to consider while planning for your move.
When we first decided that we would move to Portugal, it was only me, my wife and our daughter Lilly who was 2 at the time.
I was playing my last season of professional ice-hockey, and were determined to do something exciting upon my retirement. We did lots of research, attended moving to Portugal webinars and conferences, where we grabbed a lot of business cards from experts, lawyers and realtors.
When the decision was made, our first step was finding a lawyer that could handle all the paperwork for us. We reached out to friends who already lived in Portugal, and went on recommendations.
If you are at this stage, leave me a comment down below to receive my personal recommendations on what we consider the best firms and lawyers here in Portugal.
We had decided to start by renting a house. We weren’t sure about which area we would want to live in, and also if we would like it enough to stay, and therefore renting a property sounded like a good idea.
I reached out to a real estate agent we had met at one of the moving abroad conferences, and let her know all of our preferences. Her and I both did some research and looked over the market, and she was amazing to go and visit all the properties I was interested in.
Good to know about the Portuguese real estate market is that if you are buying or renting a property, you will not pay for the real estate agents assistance, this will be paid by the seller when a deal is made.
And so I can’t recommend enough that you do pick one realtor who will help finding the right property for you. Do some research, ask around, and go by recommendations when choosing one.
In Portugal, realtors work across markets and firms, and so if a property is listed with one specific agent, they will share the commission with the buyers broker. And so, you can have your own property assistant to make all the calls, set up all the meetings, negotiate and give you expert advise for free! So why wouldn’t you.
This is the same when purchasing a property.
If you are in the process of purchasing a house, check out my other video on my channel about “how to buy a property in Portugal”.
So the agent who helped us find our rental did video visits for us, and we actually ended up signing a rental property without seeing it in person. A bit nerv-wrecking for our first day arriving, however all went well and we absolutely loved our first home in Portugal.
When we arrived in Portugal my wife was 4 months pregnant, and so in addition to all the moving and paperworks etc, we also had to get into the healthcare system pretty quick. It can be a bit tricky to get into the system, especially if you do not speak Portuguese, and so I recommend you to bring a translator when starting this process. But it is worth it at the end, as Portugal has great healthcare, and for citizens of the EU and those with residency, public healthcare is free.
There is also great options for private healthcare for those who prefer.
Since moving here my wife have given birth to two children, and so we consider ourselves almost experts in the area of giving birth in Portugal! But that is a whole different topic 😉
So, overall we had a great experience moving here.
Make sure to do your research, attend webinars, ask around for recommendations. If you can, come for a vacation, to get a feel for the different areas and the culture.
If you have any questions or need any recommendation feel free to reach out!
Don’t forget to Like, comment down below and subscribe to my channel for more info about Portugal and the real estate market!
For more info
yared@nestseekers.com
+351 934083668 (WhatsApp)
source