Moving Now or Wait to Portugal

[danlondonuk]

Do those of you already living in Portugal see property prices falling and is the housing market still stagnant, I am hoping on creating a bed and breakfast accomodation in eastern Algarve faro regions out eastward to the coastal areas have seen an expensive large property with land but would have to sell my uk home.
The uk weather...constant rain makes me very depressed and my health and sanity needs to be in a sunny hit climate as I love the warm outdoors lifestyle and have found the Portugese people very friendly and like the country and lifestyle. Should I wait a year or two or buy abd nove now the exchange rate from uk £ to Euro is favourable, unfortunately the pound could also fall against the euro with further money printing here.....Any advice ..Positive and Negative.I have not seen tourism drop in the Eastern Algarve region and feel a bed and breakfast aimed at uk holidaymakers could work?
Greatly Appreciated.

[andyp65]

I am based up on the Silver Coast so cannot speak too much on the Algarve other than what i have read regarding visitor numbers, i have read that hotels struggled with occupancy rates last year and bookings this year are still quite low. As for buying a property, prices, like most places have dropped and this is probably going to be the same for a few years yet, i would think your biggest concern is the longevity of the Euro, if it does fail then everything in Portugal will be revalued and nobody can say with any real conviction what this will mean for house prices, we have seen the Euro weaken rather than the pound strengthen in recent weeks, the uncertainty with Greece and now Spain will put great pressure on the Euro, but if they come through this the Euro will strengthen pushing sterling down, make no mistake there is no real good news coming out of the UK so this is weak Euro not a strong pound, this needs to be considered if you have a property in the UK to sell first, by the time it is sold the Euro could be on the verge of collapse or could be stronger leaving you in a difficult situation.
I like to put a positive spin on Portugal as i love it here but you must plan well to stand any chance of success here, the property you have seen will need money spending on it to bring it up to standards and rules and regulations to be able to use it as a B&B, Portuguese red tape can be a nightmare. there are alot of things to think of, this is a huge step and you need to cover all the bases and all the possibilities if you are going to go for it. If i can help in anyway let me know and good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Andy

Originally Posted by danlondonuk

Do those of you already living in Portugal see property prices falling and is the housing market still stagnant, I am hoping on creating a bed and breakfast accomodation in eastern Algarve faro regions out eastward to the coastal areas have seen an expensive large property with land but would have to sell my uk home.
The uk weather...constant rain makes me very depressed and my health and sanity needs to be in a sunny hit climate as I love the warm outdoors lifestyle and have found the Portugese people very friendly and like the country and lifestyle. Should I wait a year or two or buy abd nove now the exchange rate from uk £ to Euro is favourable, unfortunately the pound could also fall against the euro with further money printing here.....Any advice ..Positive and Negative.I have not seen tourism drop in the Eastern Algarve region and feel a bed and breakfast aimed at uk holidaymakers could work?
Greatly Appreciated.

[danlondonuk]

Originally Posted by andyp65

I am based up on the Silver Coast so cannot speak too much on the Algarve other than what i have read regarding visitor numbers, i have read that hotels struggled with occupancy rates last year and bookings this year are still quite low. As for buying a property, prices, like most places have dropped and this is probably going to be the same for a few years yet, i would think your biggest concern is the longevity of the Euro, if it does fail then everything in Portugal will be revalued and nobody can say with any real conviction what this will mean for house prices, we have seen the Euro weaken rather than the pound strengthen in recent weeks, the uncertainty with Greece and now Spain will put great pressure on the Euro, but if they come through this the Euro will strengthen pushing sterling down, make no mistake there is no real good news coming out of the UK so this is weak Euro not a strong pound, this needs to be considered if you have a property in the UK to sell first, by the time it is sold the Euro could be on the verge of collapse or could be stronger leaving you in a difficult situation.
I like to put a positive spin on Portugal as i love it here but you must plan well to stand any chance of success here, the property you have seen will need money spending on it to bring it up to standards and rules and regulations to be able to use it as a B&B, Portuguese red tape can be a nightmare. there are alot of things to think of, this is a huge step and you need to cover all the bases and all the possibilities if you are going to go for it. If i can help in anyway let me know and good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Andy

Yes you are absolutely right re the weakening euro against a weakening pound as well
and with more money printing planned can only weaken sterling, I can not see the European politicians allowing the Euro to collapse completely rather they will have to in the end insist on greater support from Germany. This mess has been created by politicians for all of us Europeans to pay the price of. THe UK with it's constant rain and sky's and obsession with Royalty can be a bit depressing at times !

[Verinia]

I say go for it. You only have one life and in the current climate it is unstable everywhere. Follow your dream and give it your best shot. You never know hats round the corner politically or personally so just be brave!

[leonix00]

I will give just my personal opinion based in same years vacations in Algarve.
Definitely Algarve will need cheaper beds, there are many expensive beds which have their own market targets, the middle prices are struggling to fill their occupation levels, and very few offer in such kind of practical and not so expensive beds like "bed and breakfast".
I guess you could try to analyse the market and associate your bed and breakfast business to some site like booking, etc...
When i travel abroad that is my kind of place to stay too

Good luck!

[Aljeeezurs]

We moved over in September last year as we had both had enough of it in the UK for a multitude of reasons, this was not the plan as we had good salary jobs, but like you wanted to start a new in a warmer climate, so moved into our holiday home here. In short what we have found since then is the cost of living such as food, fuel, taxes and hidden extras were higher than estimated given the Portuguese economical crisis, so do your homework first. Also in our area it is so quiet with virtually half the community having houses up for sale, business for rentals and sales are poor. Not saying you shouldn't do it though!