Most people considering a move like this have read plenty about buying property in Portugal and almost nothing about living on a smallholding once the paperwork is done. This is that, as honestly as we can put it.
The river beaches
This is the thing we would have not believed before we moved here, and the thing we will miss most.
Central Portugal has praias fluviais — river beaches, where a low weir slows the water into something deep and clear enough to swim in properly. There is sand, there are trees right down to the edge, and on a hot afternoon the shade over the water is the best place in the district to be. The one nearest us is, by a fair few opinions including our own, among the nicest in Portugal.
It is free, it is a short drive, and from June to September it is where the day ends.
The cost of living
This is the part that surprises people most. Local produce is abundant and genuinely cheap, and once your own vegetable garden is producing and the fruit trees are cropping, the weekly shop stops resembling a British one.
Electricity is reliable and low-cost. Water is from our own private supply. The structural costs of living here are a fraction of what the same life costs in the UK, Ireland or the Netherlands — which is why the recurring income from the business goes as far as it does.
Healthcare
Excellent locally, and a common worry that turns out not to be one. Sertã has a health centre, the regional hospitals are within reach, staff are used to non-Portuguese residents, and the standard of care has never given us cause to think about going elsewhere.
Internet and working from here
High-speed and reliable. This is not a compromise connection — the business runs on it every day, and has for years. If you have any concern about running an online business from rural Portugal, this property is the answer to it.
Safety
An area where doors and cars get left open, and nobody thinks twice about it. That is not a sales line; it is simply how it is here, and it takes newcomers a while to stop locking things out of habit.
The rhythm of the year
- Spring — the gardens wake up fast and everything needs doing at once. Blossom, then loquats, then cherries.
- Summer — hot and dry, and the reason the river beaches matter.
- Autumn — grapes and the last of the fruit. The hills go quiet again.
- Winter — cooler and wetter than the postcards suggest. The wood burner heats the whole house and there is always wood, so warmth costs an afternoon rather than a standing charge. Oranges and mandarins on the trees. Good for the reading you keep meaning to do.
What you would actually do with your time
That is the honest appeal of this, and it is hard to convey in a listing. The business takes a modest and predictable slice of the week. The rest is yours — for the land, for the walks and trails that start at the gate, for the river, or for whatever you have been putting off because there has never been time.
Very few demands, and a great deal of freedom to think. That is what we are handing over.
Interested?
Tell us where you are in the process. If it looks like a fit we'll talk properly, and if it isn't we'll say so quickly.