Private pension or buy an apartment

[Itsallgoingtobemagnificant]

Really rubbish at all this stuff as don’t like planning for boring things, but we’ve turned 40 now and wish I’d planned it years ago. Dh and I have worked all our lives and paid into the system, so should be entitled to the state pension when the time comes. We bought our own house around ten years ago and owe around £100 grand until it’s paid off, it should hopefully sell for around £260 when the time comes when we want to sell,
We don’t have a private pension each or savings 😬we have no debt as such, aside from the mortgage, our car is paid for.
Are we in a crappy situation for the future? I keep seeing sorted people with private pensions, life insurance etc and i’m feeling a bit panicky.
We could possibly buy a small apartment as an investment and rent it out (we live abroad, It’s commonplace here and fairly reasonable) or we could each pay into a private pension instead, we can’t do both.
Any advice on the best thing to do?
We have a small Dd to think about and possibly future university/house deposit too.

If you buy a property in Portugal you will incur fees, taxes and costs on both purchase and disposal, you will pay tax on any income, you benefit from no tax relief on purchase or disposal, you will be subject to tenancy risk, price fluctuation and exchange rate fluctuation if you intend living in the UK. Plus you are essentially leveraging an investment, i.e. borrowing money to invest it. if someone said you should borrow £300,000 and invest it into GlaxoSmithKline, you would think this reckless.

Unless you are an expert, don't touch this retirement plan with a barge pole. Some have made money from this, but many have lost out; a broken clock is right twice a day.

I'll echo previous posters. Work out your state pensions given your residency and contribution records, and what you can do to fill any gaps, and get professional advice. You will pay for it but it will be worth it to avoid the pitfalls and inefficiencies i've outlined above.