Hi Elle,
I see that you have posted this back in Feb2017 and we are already almost in July 2017 (time flies)
Let me tell you a bit about my journey first. I am Brazilian and left Brazil around 10 years ago to UK. I have lived in multiple areas in London and greater London (even out of M25 area if you are familiar with) such as Surrey and Berkshire.
It never crossed through my mind to get out of Brazil to another Portuguese spoken country simply because I wanted to learn English, so UK was my first choice, however for the last 12 months my wife and I started to consider different options since we knew our rental agreement on the property we were living in was about to end in few months.
We started to check options nearby us but unfortunately renting is TOO expensive in UK, but when you start to think about buying is even worse. Property prices go up around 30% every 5 years due to many factors such as demographic population, geographical areas etc...The worst part is, if you are lucky enough to be able to save money for a deposit, then you need to think about the sort of business you are looking/can afford...for. If you choose lease hold, it means the government will have your property back in 99 years, if you are looking to have a free hold, they is a lot more expensive but the land and the building is yours. Some flat owners do something called share hold, however it will never be entirely yours, but could be an option to invest, as many people do. Considering prices out of London, such as RG40 for example in the town of Wokingham, a two bedroom flat can cost on average £320.000 with 1 bathroom no garage and a NET space of around 65sq/Mt. Obviously you can choose cheaper areas or posher ones as well, but make sure you choose an area that is balanced to your living standards as it takes a toll after sometime. We would not be able to pay rent, save for a deposit and having 2 kids, even with the both of us working full time. That is a fact unless you live on crumbs for a long time, but what sort of life quality I want to give to my children? I work in the IT industry for over 15 years and usually, depending on your accreditation, experience and etc, the year salary for someone experienced not in a managing/head of department position, can go from £30k to £44 (depends of the company's band etc) Let's say between £1750 to £2750 per month NET (it all depends of salay sacrifices, transport etc).
Grocery: Cost on supermarket for us (family of 2 adults and 2 children) around £650 pr month with no extravaganza at all, but not buying the cheapest products as well - Remember, we always try to balance things.
Rent, can go from +-AVG £1050 on a two bedroom flat to a nice and steep £1500 for a 3 bedroom house. Don;t forget that you still need to pay the bills (avg £200 per month) and council tax (avg £175) It all depends of the area, price of the property you live in and the size of your family. Don't even start asking about bureaucracy to rent somewhere etc...UK is very nasty if nor funny when comes to that and the tenant always lose it, no matter what, and I said that with multiple evidence. Even though I had two different Estate Agencies in different occasions that the customer was the owner (landlord) of the property, not us, tenants paying the rent fees etc...but , forget it.
So, let's focus now. When we started to think about a change, in a long list of places in UK and other countries as well, and we even considered Australia too, Portugal was the place that we could never remove from the list due to factual evidence such as speaking to Portuguese nationals with high and low professional background, as well non-Portuguese nationals that live in there, used to live there and vice versa using the two categories, Also checked the site comparing different countries in pretty much about anything ( ) and really helps.
Considering that every big city is more expensive to live than the outskirts or greater areas, we never wanted to live in a very urban place, as we are from São Paulo, Brazil, 26 years of that was enough, so we were looking for a calm place that wouldn't be far over than 30 mins to reach the city as you are more likely to find a variety of jobs, companies, hospitals etc...but not losing the calm ambience of being out to the "mess" lol.
To be sincere, we had many good findings when it comes about Portugal. Portugal has an enormous industry for IT, Finance, service outsourcing, logistics, retail, transport and so on. I hear a lot of Portuguese people saying that Portugal has no jobs, but when I started to analyse this the very same people telling me these, either had a very poor or none professional experience on their industry or were not even graduated and migrated to UK, for example to work in pubs or restaurants. Be careful there, there are a lot of exception under a high skilled layer that also preferred to find a job elsewhere, but this happens everywhere. When I mean the majority, this means that means the higher proportion and does not mean that in Portugal for example, there are plenty of jobs and employers are waiting for you in the airport with a board saying "come, I have a job for you" . Job hunting can be though anywhere in the world and what will make sure you got the job or not is your ability to show facts that you are the right person for that position.
Salary: again, on IT industry salaries can go from +-€800 per month NET for a recently graduated or inexperience professional working full time to a +-€2200 per month NET for a i.e. team leader of a specific area, senior specialist etc with more than 10 years of experience...Head of Department and similar activities for beyond high €3000. A very interesting point is that Portugal pays food subside allowance, 14 salaries per year and most cases annual bonus, >25 days of holiday per year, birthday paid holiday and other benefits like proper health care that allows you to go directly to a specialist without wait (not like a joke system that NHS has where even having a private health care, you still need to go through your GP doctor to decide you will be either referred to a specialist of not. In my opinion, private should not mix with estate health service).
Good place to find jobs are obviously Linkedin, , , ,
Property: If you are moving to PT, I recommend you rent for at least 12 months so you will know, should you decide to stay in PT, where is better for you or not in terms of areas.
Renting goes, for a 2 bedroom apartment to a 3 bedroom apartment (typed as T2 or T3 or over) depending of the area and I give my example as we live out of Lisbon but just 25 minutes from Lisbon central, we rent a T3 with 110 sq/mt NET (useful area) with parking, lift, no maintenance fees from the condo in a all new (under 15 year old apartment), just 25 mins from Lisbon, 30 minutes from a proper "swimable" beach and 2 hours from the Algarve for €550 per month where bills cost additional €130 tops, including Internet which is far superior than UK and a lot cheaper. ref: water €18, gas €35, electricity €40, internet 100mb fiber €28 - "NO COUNCIL TAX OR ANY OTHER ADDITIONAL BILL" and we are 4 people.
Bureaucracy? Minimal, there is no credit referencing in PT, so you either have a guarantor or pay 3 month rent in advance plus 1 month deposit. Less than what I was paying in UK for 1 month.
Buying? Even cheaper, I found last week a T5 duplex apartment with 235sq/mt NET NEW being sold for €168.000 with garage, outdoor patios, own BBq area, lift, 2 en-suites and 1 family bathroom, 3 balconies.
If you fancy some web searching, I like the site idealista.pt
Food: Is just great and cheap. Proper decent food.
Other aspects to consider: At the same time the Portuguese are very proud and patriotic, hey are very warm, kind and social inclusive, polite and fun. I actually suffered a bit trying to socialise in UK as UK culture in its majority is very closed to their own groups, formal and reserved, but there are exceptions too, as I made very good friends as well in UK, but the living style in UK is work work work and sometimes enjoy. Not complaining, but that's reality, that's why we have changed.
My opinion, not sure you you have already moved or not, but the above statement from myself gives you enough info to start up a quest to do your home work and find for yourself if PT is the place for you or not - Have fun!
PS: All the above information is given and referenced from my personal experience and opinion. Results may differ from one to another individual. UK is a great place so other countries and also understand that at here are no perfect place. You need to balance what is best for you and take action or not.
Nick
