Safety, World-Class Health Care, And 3,000 Hours Of Sunshine

I’ve been spending time in Europe for decades. I’ve lived in Ireland and hold an Irish passport. I still live part-time in France. And I’ve invested right across the continent, from Cyprus to Spain, Romania, Croatia, and beyond.

For a lot of years, Portugal stood head and shoulders above the rest for two key reasons: its Golden Visa program and its tax benefit rich Non-Habitual Resident (NHR) program.

Property in the country was a steal, too.

Back in 2015, Kathleen and I went house-hunting there.

We were spoiled for choice… a little farmhouse surrounded by an orange-tree orchard… an old villa overlooking a magnificent sandstone-cliff coast… an ancient village cottage with an arched, medieval passageway in the capital, Lisbon…

Then, a block from a plaza square, in the historic seaside city of Lagos, we found an ocean-view apartment and knew the search was over.

It had a balcony and rooftop terrace, and because the market had been so long ignored, it was ours for just 99,500 euros.

We renovated it, making use of it on our visits to Portugal and renting it out for cash flow the rest of the time.

Four years on, as Portugal’s property market began to soar, we sold, locking in capital gains of 125%.

It proved to one of the best property investment purchases of my career (and that’s more than 50 buys across two-dozen countries).

Today, the landscape in Portugal has changed considerably.

The NHR and its tax benefits have been scrapped for newcomers while the real estate investment option of the Golden Visa program—previously Europe’s most popular—is also no more (though the program remains with other investment options).

House prices have been rising here since 2015. Rents too… but there are still bargains to be found if you’re happy to look off the beaten track.

And while you can’t get a second passport by buying property anymore, you can still do so through naturalization. And normal (D7) residency is still one of the easiest in Europe—you can qualify with the equivalent of about $1,300 a month in income.

Plus, for investors, mortgages are available to foreigners in Portugal—and rates here are averaging 4.26%. You don’t even need to live here to qualify.

Bottom line: this is still a land of opportunity.

There’s also other advantages to life here… great weather, a low cost of living, and the ability to get by with English if you locate yourself in an expat area such as Algarve or Lisbon.

It’s also ranked among the top 10 safest countries in the world. Its health care system lists as the 12th best in the world and, as a resident, health care is free or nearly so.

You have good options for daily flights from the United States to Lisbon. From there you can connect or drive easily to anywhere else in the country. From Lisbon, Faro, and Porto, you have many direct flight options to destinations across Europe.

On the country’s Algarve, where I’ll be next week for the Live And Invest In Portugal conference, you can enjoy a Californian climate with the same great beach-lifestyle opportunities and golfing options… but at a lower cost… and with the added benefit of beautiful historic towns to explore.

As well as more than 125 of your fellow readers, I’ll be expecting sunshine—the Algarve enjoys more than 3,000 hours of it a year.

We’ll be discussing the changes, the opportunities, and the lifestyle options that today’s Portugal offers and showing those gathered there the best, easiest, and most cost-effective way to take advantage of them all.

I’m looking forward to it.

Stay diversified,

Lief Simon

Editor, Offshore Living Letter