bazzer70

Hi again everybody - our recce trip to Portugal is looming and having read many posts here it appears long term rentals are rather few...We are visiting in May (staying in a hotel) and planned to visit letting agencies in the Algarve to see what, if anything, is available from January 2019. No harm in seeing if anyone has any recent knowledge and advice for us to investigate before we set off in a few weeks time.
I don't know how long it will take for us to find our ideal home to take the plunge and actually buy but I would prefer to be able to rent for as long as possible while searching. It need not necessarily be very close to amenities or beach but 2 bedrooms needed and permission for the cat to stay too.
There are some properties on www.longtermlettings.com which will let us have 5 months but we would prefer longer (but obviously don't want to pay the huge prices commanded by summer months)
But if we did take their option and rent for say 5 months would this address be OK in terms of using it to register for our move to become Portuguese residents and all it entails?
Suggestions/advice gratefully received
Baz

Marvao

Hello. I think generally the best time to start looking for off peak rentals in the Algarve is from October onwards. You could ask a potential landlord in advance if they are prepared to make a rent contract or an attestation that you live at their place, called Atestado De Residencia (at least that's what is sounds like). As far as I know, I think with either of those two docs you can register yourself at your local municipality to get the 5 year residence paper. I hope this is helpful to you.

MrBife

I spent some time researching this a while back and whilst there are some helpful groups on Facebook, most of the actual properties are linked to Property Management companies whose job it is to decide whether the predictable income from a long term rent (lower income but service bills paid by renter) is better than short term holiday rental (higher income but service bills + maid + laundry + marketing costs etc paid by owner).

I ended up finding one company in Almancil that were a breath of fresh air + suggested them to others but they only cover the central Algarve and that may not be your preference