Mickety Mackety

Is this a feasible idea.
I imagine to buy a very cheap country cottage with basic facilities to use as a holiday home for a few months of the year in Portugal. I can do without electricity of course,.... however, access to water would be helpful.
Of course renting would be easier but having had a look the rental prices they seem very high.... no?
I would like as much land as possible and in a remote location.
As we are hermit type no mod cons are needed or wanted.

Red Eric

What's your idea of very cheap?

Do you have any preference location-wise?

Are you going to have your own transport?

Mickety Mackety

Yes. I have my own motorbike . Location would be better not too far from airport but in remote are better as I guess cheaper.

Mickety Mackety

Very cheap means the cheapest possible option, though I do not want to live in a garage in a city. So it must be in the country with a bit of land so we can have a few animals for milk cheese eggs etc.,secluded and hopefully on a river for water. Never mind electrics. We lived in UK for 4 years no electric or running water and it was just fine .

EU.flag

Now that is a different story. If you already successfuly lived nomadic life for years, then doing same here in PT shouldnt be problem.
Cheapest properties are usualy called "ruins" here. If you have building skills and some spare cash, you could renovate a ruin cheap.
However, in my opinion, it would be beter to find cheap remote habitable house. What is your budget?

Unless you have EU passport, have you checked if you meet visa requirements?

Red Eric

This doesn't seem to me compatible with only being here for a few months a year, which would be all you could manage as a non-EU national without a residence permit. Nor would you realistically be able to grow any veg if you're intending to be back and forth.

Enough land for grazing animals would require a substantial plot as well as some shelter for the animals. Nobody round me leaves any animals out overnight, although I'm not sure of the reasons. Substantial plots require constant maintenance and - usually - some sort of machinery. Or the hiring of someone with it. A bloke in my neighbourhood keeps sheep, goats and horses as well as chickens and ducks. He grows a paddock full of hay each year to supplement the fresh pasture the animals graze on. They wouldn't survive otherwise.

In terms of price, I can endorse what Mr Flag said. I'm not in either an urban or a touristy area. I'm about 3k away from the nearest town, which is small. Not remote as such but definitely not a particularly in demand area. I paid around 115,000 euros 18 years ago for a 70s-built, small, 3 bed house on a 1,000 sq mtr plot. Definitely not luxurious quality and I've spent a fair bit on it since to get a modicum of comfort. It was habitable at purchase-time - just. It wasn't on the mains water supply at the time but its own borehole required a pump to fill the tank in the attic for water to the house, and that was electric. I wouldn't have thought I'd have broken even if I'd sold in the first 10 years or so but things have changed markedly over the last few and my finger in the air guess is that you'd need at least twice that to buy a similar property round here nowadays.

appman999

And depending where you are don't forget the fire prevention land clearance requirements which could be significant with a large plot.

Mickety Mackety

The 3 bed house sounds grand. But I could hardly raise 1/10th of the money required for that. So it will be smaller and more basic.

Mickety Mackety

No. I dont do any of these so called requirements that are not neccessary.

Mickety Mackety

Im wondering if i sell my UK property and raise 150,000 GBP how esy would it be to spend 6 months a year living there and then rent out or airbnb it for the other 6 as per visa requirements post Brexit,,,thanks again tories.!

Red Eric

It would have to be of a very good standard and in an area likely to be visited by tourists to be viable. I really don't think your budget would run to that.

Plus, for that you'd need to have the property licensed and set up the necessary tax-wise. And deal with the fact that with you not being present, you'd need somebody to manage the property, do the registration of guests / acting as a point of contact, the cleaning, etc.

I don't think a residential let would work well either. You're not likely to keep finding tenants who want a property for just the months you're not there, year on year. And you've got responsibilities with that type of let as well.

Red Eric

They have ways of making you comply.

dmu

Hi, butting in from the France forum, but it's a universal issue.....
If you'll only be coming a few months in the year, you'll need some one to look after your livestock for the rest of the time.
And please don't underestimate the risks of fires ravaging uncleared land. Fire-prevention regulations also exist in France and, after the horrific fires in the S.W. in recent years, are strictly applied. In another life, we owned a stone shepherd's hut/sheepfold, with no electricity nor running water, surrounded by several hectares of uncultivated land with a view, where we used to camp. But we had to spend a lot of money continually clearing the long grass (reluctantly, as I would have preferred to keep the flowery meadows), even in those days before the now-regular periods of drought increased the risk of fire.
Just saying.....

Mickety Mackety

So on top of everything else the have anal fire clearance regulations ? The main reason Im getting out of the UK is all the anal regulations. Can one still buy a ruin with some land and put a caravan on site in Portugal or Spain?

Listen Very Carefully

It may sound anal to you but having seen the effect that a wild fire can have when I lived in Italy I would not take it so lightly if I were you.Many people in rural Europe depend on Olive/Fruit/crops/a few animals to actually survive and keep their heads above water.Our neighbours were devastated when about a third of their olive grove went up in flames and if it had not been for the whole village working with the fire brigade the result would have been much worse.
I would suggest that you need to reappraise your attitude to certain aspects of life especially in the EU otherwise you could find yourself with a whole lot of problems