Customer Reviews

Buying a Home in Portugal

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My wife is a Portuguese citizen and although we are currently living in the USA we've made plans to purchase a second home in her native country. This book is good for a basic introduction to the idea of purchasing a home in Portugal, but it really only skims the surface. The main chapters in the book are well laid out, but the narrative seems to lack a continuous flow at times and doesn't do a good job of summarizing key points or explaining the fine details. What the book does best is at least make the reader aware of the many considerations and complex issues (different taxes, different possible ways to arrange for a mortage, etc.) that need to be examined before making a purchase. However, the book doesn't provide enough information on any of these issues for the reader to make any judgements about his own situation. I guess I was hoping the book would be more along the lines of the humbly-entitled but very helpful "Idiots Guide" or "Dummies" series. This book is definitely not along the sames lines as those books. Good news if you're proud of the fact that you're not an idiot, but when it comes to buying a home in Portugal I'll be the first to admit that I AM and idiot, and would like to have things explained to me thus! I also think that my admittedly "American" expectation was that the book would be comparing purchasing a home in Portugal with purchasing a home in the USA. In all fairness to the author, that's not what was stated. The book doesn't directly compare purchasing a home in Portugal to purchasing a home anywhere else, which makes the task of explaining the business of buying a home in Portugal very difficult indeed - the author doesn't share a common frame of reference with the reader. (Though one can definitely tell that the author is from the United Kingdom). Because of the dearth of information available, I am still glad I bought it and can recommend that anyone thinking of making this move read this book. However, I'll still be relying on my wife's in-depth knowledge of Portugal when we do purchase our home there. Best of luck to you!

This was my first guide before I bought a little place in the Algarve. It gave me the essentials and got me started. Then of course you will need a local solicitor, and some are quite fluent in English. This book does not do every thing for you but is very useful.