To think about buying a property in Portugal?

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

It's so frigging beautiful there....the properties are so cheap atm. I want one! DH is all surprised because I am not the adventurous type.

I would want us to have it for holidays and maybe retire there one day. I work from home (self employed) and at the moment am the main breadwinner so actually, if it weren't for two DC in full time education I would probably live there now...my business can be done anywhere.

I fantasize about being self sustainable...growing stuff...eating our own fish and veg and fruit....am I silly? I have only been to Portugal once and have no idea what the infrastructure is like! I did hear that healthcare isn't much cop.

Have tracked down the surveyor and sent you a pm with his info!

We stayed near Lagos last year and it was incredibly cheap to eat out however we were utterly underwhelmed by the parts of the Algarve we saw, and we did quite a bit of travelling. Maybe we need to explore other areas as there wasn't really anywhere we fell in love with.

Yes, I think maybe you need to explore a bit further, but if the Algarve isn't for you, it isn't for you, I wouldn't worry about it

Thank you Costa!

Quick question...one of the properties on our shortlist is sold without the furniture which is a shame as it is very lovely.

Anyway, how easy/ nightmareish would it be to buy nice furniture for a whole property in the Algarve. I would like to be able to go somewhere that is a bit like Habitat or the upper end of Ikea/ M&S, John Lewis but would not know where to begin. Guessing there must be places in Faro? No idea how we would manage deliveries from afar either - guess this must be a service managing agents can provide?

Hoping we could make an offer for their furniture but there must be a reason they want to keep it given most properties are sold furnished where we are looking (maybe they live there rather than it being a second home).

STILL pondering this. We have found a villa we like a LOT but:

• will the admin of managing it (even with an agency doing lettings and a managing agent locally) drive us mad? For those who have done this, how much time did it take up per week?
• the question nobody can answer - is it a vaguely okay investment. We know the letting returns are not great after tax and costs and are not in it for a pure investment (lifestyle issue of having a house we like, our way too) but we'd also like it not to be a disaster either.