How to find and secure a long-term rental in Portugal as a foreigner: what it really costs, what landlords can legally ask for, how to rent before your visa is approved, and how to get your deposit back.
Fast fiber is cheap and reaches almost every town in Portugal, often gigabit for around €40 a month. Here’s what it costs, how MEO, NOS, Vodafone, and Digi compare, and why you should check your exact address before you sign anything.
Furnishing a home Where to Buy Furniture in Portugal If I were furnishing a place in Portugal today, I’d start with IKEA or Conforama for the basics, then get the pieces I really care about, like a sofa or a dining table, made by a Portuguese manufacturer. Second-hand is harder than you’d expect, and almost nothing arrives as quickly as you’d like. That’s the whole plan. The rest of this page is the detail, including what everything actually costs. And …
If you’re applying for a D7 or the digital nomad visa, you’ll almost certainly need a Portuguese bank account. It usually has to hold your savings or show your means of support. It’s one of the questions I get asked most, mostly by visa applicants and occasionally by people buying property here. People are always surprised they can’t just go online and open an account with Millennium or Novo Banco themselves. But I couldn’t easily open an account in America …
A practical 14-step walkthrough for first-time foreign buyers. From your first market research to keys in the door: what to do, in what order, and where to be careful. Can foreigners buy property in Portugal? Yes. There are no nationality or residency restrictions on buying property in Portugal. You’ll need a NIF (Portuguese tax number) and, in practice, a Portuguese bank account. Since 2026, non-residents pay a flat 7.5% IMT on homes, so budget more than the old 6–8% rule …
If you’re familiar with Zillow or Realtor.com in the US—or Rightmove and Zoopla in the UK—your instinct is probably to look for “the one big website” that lists every property for sale. In Portugal, that doesn’t exist. There is no MLS system, and that means two things: Think of Portugal as a patchwork: different agents upload to different portals, some post only on their agency website, and a surprising number of rural owners still list only on classifieds. Below is …
Can You Still Watch Your Usual TV in Portugal? Mostly, yes. Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max and Apple TV+ all work in Portugal, with the Portuguese library rather than the American or British one. The Premier League and the NFL are both on DAZN, legally and without workarounds. The hard parts are British catch-up TV and live American channels. For most people, especially in the first few months, I’d get fiber internet with a TV package that includes the …
Dreaming of owning a little slice of Portugal — maybe a sunny apartment overlooking the Algarve coast, a stone cottage in the Alentejo, or a city apartment in Lisbon? The good news is that getting a mortgage in Portugal is absolutely possible for foreigners. The process is more straightforward than you might think — as long as you understand how Portuguese banks work, what paperwork you’ll need, and what kind of deposit to expect. Since 2016, Portugalist has helped countless …
A major step in the Portuguese property buying process is putting down a deposit and signing the promissory contract. You’ve already made an offer, but the promissory contract confirms you want to go ahead with the sale. Although putting down a deposit is a normal part of the buying process in many countries, in Portugal this is a much bigger step as the promissory contract (Contrato de Promessa de Compra e Venda or just CPCV) makes it difficult for either …
Portugal has great internet coverage, but there are definitely some parts of the country that aren’t covered – not just by fibre broadband but by mobile internet as well. If that’s the case, you may be looking at other options and wondering whether Elon Musk’s Spacex Starlink could be the answer to your problems. With a monthly cost of €40 (and, as of August 2024, a hardware setup cost of between €249 and €349), getting internet through Starlink isn’t as …