The MiMove-blog had a chat with happy pensioner Helena who unexpectedly changed her life around when retiring and moved to Portugal.
Already 20 years ago, my husband Bengt and I started talking about what to do when our children moved out and when we retired. We came to the decision that we would sell our house outside Stockholm and buy a centrally located flat instead. We would also keep our summerhouse in the south of Sweden. And when the children moved, we did just that, we sold up and moved into town.
Moved to the city as pensioners
We lived like that for a while and it was good and practical, but it just didn’t feel like the life we wanted as pensioners. The winters were not like they used to, the weather was awful and even if it is lovely to go skiing for a week or so per year, it was not so great the rest of the season.
A couple of business associates asked why we did not move to Portugal instead of enduring the Swedish climate and that got us thinking. We thought about where in the world we wanted to live if not in Sweden. We have two daughters and four grandchildren, and we did not want to be too far away from them. That excluded places like Thailand and the Philippines. We wanted to stay in Europe but with nicer weather and then it was really just the Mediterranean area to consider. We also wanted it to be quite easy to get integrated into our new home country and we wanted to feel welcome.
Friendly Portugal
We thought of Spain, Italy, and France. They are all lovely countries but the locals might not always be so fond of tourists. In our opinion, especially Scandinavians seem to have got a pretty bad reputation in those countries.
However, we did not experience this at all in Portugal. Every time we have been to Portugal to visit friends or with work Portugal and the Portuguese people have welcomed us with open arms. Everyone has been so nice and friendly, and Portugal quickly became our first-hand choice. In addition, most people speak English and don’t expect others to speak Portuguese meaning it would be quite easy to integrate with the locals. The tax rules for international buyers were also a positive aspect but not the most important; the language and the friendliness were much more important parts for us apart from the climate of course.
Warmer weather
The climate was the main driving force behind the move, and we wanted it to be pleasant during the winters and therefore we started looking at the Algarve area where the weather is warmer. During 2014-2015 we started looking a little more focussed and we looked a lot online, especially around the area of Tavira where it is a little less windy. We also went to property fairs and made some connections with local estate agents.
Originally, we thought we would rent long term, but we were unable to find good rental online sites and we thought we could sort it out once we were in Portugal.
Authentic Portugal
We dedicated one week during the spring of 2015 and went down to view different properties and villages. We were looking for the real Portugal without loud tourists and we started out by looking at properties in the countryside. It was really beautiful, we saw some fantastic places, some quirky properties, and lovely farms. But we also realized that the countryside was not for us. We may have retired but we are active people and do like some noise now and then, the countryside was simply too quiet for us.
We returned to the coast and explored Tavira and when we did not find anything that we liked there we phoned some more estate agents and drove along the coast in the direction of Lagos. We passed many areas designed just for tourists and international buyers and those areas all looked the same and were not for us. But on the last day of our trip, we arrived in the old fishing village of Ferragudo. The houses almost hung from the mountainside and the village was only about five minutes from the beach. It is so beautiful. We fell in love with this little village and our search entered a new phase. As we now knew where we wanted to be it was easier to focus.
Not so helpful agents
We were surprised at the lack of help we got from the real estate agents. It was also difficult to gather information and at that time MiMove had not yet started. We did, however, manage to find a few properties on our own. We viewed those, and for a while, there was a lot going back and forth between Sweden and Portugal. Sometimes, we passed each other meaning Bengt would go down and view one property come back to Sweden and then I would go down and often we didn’t like each other’s choices. The process became quite lengthy that way. However, in the summer of 2016, I found a property I liked and thought “this could become our home”. Bengt went down later on and he also liked it. When we bought it, we still hadn’t seen it together.
Buying vs renting
In the end, we bought straight away instead of renting. We bought a house in the centre of the village, 50 metres from the town square. The village is only small, with about 2 500 inhabitants. They are mostly Portuguese but also a few Swedes, Brits and Dutch people. The village is still very quaint and authentic. Fishing is the main income as it has been for centuries. There are little black dressed ladies walking down the narrow streets, just like you expect in this kind of village. We left Sweden around new year’s 2016/2017 and on the 4th of January 2017, we moved into our new house.
Impossible to heat
We had a building survey carried out before we bought and that made us feel confident to go ahead with the purchase. But in spite of that and that we had spoken to the previous owners and checked the bills from the time they had owned it, it turned out that it was impossible to heat the property properly. The house we had bought included an adjacent former stable. Our original idea was to knock through the walls to the stables to create a bigger living area. But we realize that that was not feasible due to the heating problems.
Complete refurbishment
And even without the knocking through to the stables, everything needed to be refurbished and then we were struck with more upheaval. The architect we contacted did not want the job as he thought the job was too small. Then the project manager, we commissioned, was lousy. We, two elderly pharmacists, two pensioners, had to manage the building project ourselves. And we did it, unexpectedly well.
I doubled the estimation we got from the estate agent to do a budget. In the end, the renovation cost four times that amount.
Until October of that year we did very little else but live and breathe the building work. Certain days we had no running water. Sometimes, it felt a little like living in a gravel pit. But, in summary, we are very happy we stayed there while the building work took place.
We would not have been able to manage it from a distance with all the decisions that we had to make. And we also needed to actually live in the house to get a proper feel for it and its atmosphere. I am so proud of us, that we did it and that we have such a lovely house now!
Compared goals
When we finally decided to make the move each of us wrote down our objectives with the move and our lives as pensioners in Portugal. Luckily it turned out that we had similar goals with moving to Portugal. Culture, friends, fitness, health, and learning the language. We had not been living together for many, many years due to work commitments. Living together under the same roof would also be a new phase for us.
We spent our first year in Portugal on building work. The second year we traveled and had friends and family visiting. Now, in the third year, it feels like peace and quiet has finally arrived. We have started our fitness regimen, Bengt plays some golf and we hike together in the hills. We are practicing the language and we have made some local friends. We would love to make some more Portuguese friends. We also socialize a lot with other Northern Europeans.
Learning the language
Right now, my priority is to learn the language well enough to be able to have a proper conversation with Daniel at the local bar. He was born in our street and knows everything there is to know about our house. But he only speaks Portuguese. I tried using a translation app, but it turned out that he can neither read nor write. So, the only way forward for me is to learn Portuguese. It is a real motivator! I am so curious as to what he can tell me.
Life after retirement did not turn out like we had planned, and I love it. We don’t regret it for a second moving here. The climate is wonderful, the village genuine, and we have met so many friendly people. This is real quality of life!