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Hello fellow expats,
I am brand new to this forum, a retired EU citizen from Scandinavia who has been an expat in Chile for a couple a years, then an expat in a provincial town in Argentina for four years, thus I speak Spanish - but not português. I am a cosmopolitan type of person having lived in 8 countries and worked in more than 20. I am used to temperatures in the range -20 to +45 C.
I am very close to a decision to relocate to somewhere else, almost certainly to Europe (closer to my family) and possibly to beautiful Portugal.
What is initially on my mind is to find a nice Smalltown (size of Aveiro, Coimbra, Leiria or Setúbal) somewhere midway between Porto and Lisboa or a little further south, check it out for a couple of weeks and, if satisfactory, rent a furnished one-bedroom + living/diningroom for some months - then something similar on a long term rental if I still feel comfortable. I don't want to buy a property, which my children will have problems selling after my death.
I have just started my research and have read about Portugal in general in e.g. the CIA Factbook and also a good number of threads in this and another Portugal expats forum and have found answers to some of my questions, but as conditions differ for each individual, I still have questions left - some of which I don't even know myself :-D
My moving date should be around January ... March/April 2013.
I usually dine out once or twice a week in some small family owned restaurant and for the rest I am a pretty good cook.
I have a pension of around 17,000 Euro a year after taxes.
1. Is this enough to live comfortably in Smalltown Portugal?
2. Is it easy to rent a furnished apartment short term? ... long term?
2.1. Deposit - is it one (or more) months of rent?
2.2. Real estate agents fee when renting?
3. Pitfalls related to renting?
4. Recommended towns?
I have an idea of the price level from a 'cost of living' site, but I have no idea of how reliable it is.
5. Do these figures look realistic:
1 bedroom apartment rental in city centre: 360 €
1 bedroom apartment rental outside of centre: 290 €
Basic utilities (electricity + gas + water + garbage removal) for 85 sq.m apartment: 80 €
Any relevant input you can supply is extremely welcome.
Cheers,
Don Alberto
I am brand new to this forum, a retired EU citizen from Scandinavia who has been an expat in Chile for a couple a years, then an expat in a provincial town in Argentina for four years, thus I speak Spanish - but not português. I am a cosmopolitan type of person having lived in 8 countries and worked in more than 20. I am used to temperatures in the range -20 to +45 C.
I am very close to a decision to relocate to somewhere else, almost certainly to Europe (closer to my family) and possibly to beautiful Portugal.
What is initially on my mind is to find a nice Smalltown (size of Aveiro, Coimbra, Leiria or Setúbal) somewhere midway between Porto and Lisboa or a little further south, check it out for a couple of weeks and, if satisfactory, rent a furnished one-bedroom + living/diningroom for some months - then something similar on a long term rental if I still feel comfortable. I don't want to buy a property, which my children will have problems selling after my death.
I have just started my research and have read about Portugal in general in e.g. the CIA Factbook and also a good number of threads in this and another Portugal expats forum and have found answers to some of my questions, but as conditions differ for each individual, I still have questions left - some of which I don't even know myself :-D
My moving date should be around January ... March/April 2013.
I usually dine out once or twice a week in some small family owned restaurant and for the rest I am a pretty good cook.
I have a pension of around 17,000 Euro a year after taxes.
1. Is this enough to live comfortably in Smalltown Portugal?
2. Is it easy to rent a furnished apartment short term? ... long term?
2.1. Deposit - is it one (or more) months of rent?
2.2. Real estate agents fee when renting?
3. Pitfalls related to renting?
4. Recommended towns?
I have an idea of the price level from a 'cost of living' site, but I have no idea of how reliable it is.
5. Do these figures look realistic:
1 bedroom apartment rental in city centre: 360 €
1 bedroom apartment rental outside of centre: 290 €
Basic utilities (electricity + gas + water + garbage removal) for 85 sq.m apartment: 80 €
Any relevant input you can supply is extremely welcome.
Cheers,
Don Alberto