June W

Hi all,

I am now deep into the initial stages of searching for property in the Algarve from where to continue my retirement journey. Whilst looking I had a few odd questions that occurred to me. If anyone could give some quick insight it would be much appreciated:

a) Water for pool. I had a house in Spain that did not have a bore hole and the water bill was very high. Are water rates high? Are boreholes common? I did notice that away from the coast they seemed more common.
b) Dead palm trees. I noticed that on quite a few villas there seemed to big dead palm trees in the grounds and I could not understand why they had not been chopped down. I was wondering if this was just an oddity or is it like Spain with protected trees (such as the Norfolk island pine).
c) Lighthouse. One nice property had a lighthouse in the near vista, are they a problem. Once in Asia they built a huge electronic bill board near my flat. Drove me mad at night, had to leave.
d) Fast internet - I assume you can get virtually anywhere in Algarve?

Thanks a million!

June

Rambling archer

a) read up in the Press - water in the Algarve area (even in the hills behind the coastline) is becoming more and more of a problem, relating not only to over-use by increasing population, but especially due to climate change. Boreholes are having to go deeper and agriculture is meeting difficulty accessing water. Actual water rates in the area I cannot help with - am up in Central PT
b) palm trees - as in Spain, the palm beetle/weevil is a plague in PT and very many Canary palm have succumbed and other palms are sometimes susceptible - they are very difficult to cut down being fibrous rather than woody. Some people use the stump decoratively by growing the likes of Campsis or Jasmine over it ... some are just left as eyesores.
c) lighthouse - as far as I know they are always blanked off on the landward side, but there are not that many about - select somewhere out of range ?
d) internet - fibre seems to be the best option and is widespread in PT and in the touristy areas there may even be free wifi provided by the town, or you can pay to link into a condominium if you decide on a flat. Of course if you get a rustic place inland away from main roads then fibre connection MIGHT be a problem ... Satellite is an option but much more expensive. Some towns also provide a secure, but line-of-sight wifi link, payable but relatively cheap, but very local. You need local knowledge for that one - ask the estate agent for details.

Good luck with your search.

BillBullock

Mains water is very expensive in the Algarve if you use more than about 5 cu m a month. The rate per cu m goes up the more you use, so it is best to have borehole water for garden irrigation systems and swimming pools. Fibre optic internet is generally not available in the countryside, even if you are not far from a town or the coast, so you have to learn to live with slow internet over the old copper wires.

liveaboard

You can get water delivered to fill your pool if you're on mains water, but you'll still use mains water for topup.
If there is no pool and you want one, there is a permit process.
If you're planning on having garden or lawn, you'll need another water supply.

In rural areas, most people get internet via fixed position wireless 3,4,or 5G. Check the coverage because there are places with none, or very poor service.
I get quite fast internet through copper wires, but I'm just a few km from the exchange.

Whether the lighthouse bothers you is really dependent on you. Mostly people get used to things like that fairly quickly. Also, you can have window coverings.

I used to live near a clock tower that clanged every 15 minutes 24 hours a day. Neighbors were unable to sleep well while it was under repair and DIDN'T clang all night.
After a few years we moved, and I was very glad to be away from the infernal thing.