Pilou

Yes that is difficult. For the neighbours they will prefer our dog as neighbour above other dogs or children! He does not bark. The most silent dog on earth.

But as long as he lives (we hope another 6 months) he won't stay in an apartment! We will enjoy our house in Spain and France. Resident in Portugal can wait if we buy a flat.

Pilou

The next 2 weeks we will either decide to buy a house in the center of Portimao or a quinta in Silves. We like both.
One is at walking distance to shops, boulevard, train station, supermarkets, mercado. Some work is needed. Only outside space is a roof terrace.
The quinta has a lot of (outside) space. Needs a lot of work for improvement, but is more or less livable. Nice to sit outside and enjoy the nature, but further away from the beaches (15 minutes).

It is so difficult to decide. Maybe some (positive or negative) remarks from your side will help.
Thanks

EMR

For me it would be the Quinta every time.
Location, location, location.
I am assuming that you have not only space but some views with the Quinta.
I find apartments claustrophobic, the Canadians call it cabin fever.

The only positive with an apartment is that it would probably be more secure when you are not in Portugal.
But we have had no problems with our villa being empty for weeks at a time.

Pilou

Thanks. I understand what you mean. The thing is that we never lived in a town center. With the maintenance of a garden in France and Spain (houses we will keep) we know think that a townhouse is easy. But ...... are we able to live without a real outside space? Can we stand the noise of a town? We also need to be sure we can sell after 7 to 10 years.

EMR

I agree about the noise, here in the UK its traffic and people.
In Portugal its the neighbours chickens and of course their dogs.
When it comes to 're selling , there are always thousands of apartments but well maintained small houses with gardens as you have found are not easy to find and demand for them is high.

Pilou

Thanks.

toots sweet

It would be the quinta for me. Having lived in Portugal, town centre living can be very noisy. Deliveries ,bin emptying,motorbikes,privacy etc.At the quinta you have hopefully peace and quiet and plenty of outside space and privacy and car parking,which is horrendous in Portimao.
4 weeks from now we will be heading to Portugal for the winter and like you looking for property to relocate back. Not the algarve this time but the Silver coast to see if it suits us. Will be looking at the edges of a village or small town or residential areas.

Pilou

Thanks.
When we cannot discuss the price of the quinta, it will be no option for us.

You lived in the Algarve before? Why the Silvercoast this time?

toots sweet

Weather I think. Algarve summers are way too hot ,but spring and autumn is lovely.
My husband knows the silver coast a little,me not so much,so we are going to test the water.Also we know the Algarve so well,we are finding new things harder to find and i like history which is quite scarce down there,while the silver coast area has easy access to many historical and unesco sites. Hoping the north will get us back to the old Portugal that we know.
We shall see,but I can't wait to get back there.Feel when I arrive that i'm almost coming home.

Pilou

We found our house. We will contact today or tomorrow a lawyer in Porches (thanks Zoff!).

The thing is that we want to buy the house as a resident. After 3 months you can ask to become resident. Some people had the chance to become resident wihtin 2 or 3 months.

What I don't know yet is, if our stay in Portugal during the months February and March this year will count as well.
I can imagine it will count, because -a contrario - someone can stay as non resident almost 3 months, after 2 weeks again almost 3 months and so on, without the obligation to become resident.

Red Eric

I don't understand your problem.

Surely if you're moving here and intending to stay permanently, then you're resident from day 1?

Have you tried registering yet?

Pilou

No, because I read here and on internet that you only can register after 3 months of stay.
So I think we will go to try this as soon as we make a down-payment on the house.

Red Eric

The actual wording leaves it open to interpretation and most certainly doesn't rule out registering within that tme.

What's the issue with regards to the house? I didn't show a resident's certificate when I bought mine.

Pilou

We have rented a holiday-home for the next months. When we want to register as resident tomorrow, what address do I give them? When I give them the address of the holiday home and the government sends important letters to this address, I have a problem, because I don't have access to the letter box.

Or .... don't they send letters to the temporary address I gave them?
Could I give the address of the lawyer for the time being?

Thanks!

Red Eric

Have you spoken to your lawyer about the possibility of using his address for contact / mail purposes? If he's agreeable that'd be as good an idea as any.

I don't see why you can't register using your current accommodation address as your physical address for the purposes of residency registration. The certificate's issued there and then and there's no other correspondence arising directly from that. You'd just need to go back and get the certificate re-issued with the change of address when you move in to your house.