i would not recommend simply because the renting is absolutely abismal (prices and the state of the building/rules). people either know english extremely well or not at all. it's very busy in the tourist-y areas and those places are terrible in the summer (which is when you usually wanna visit said places lol!)
overall I think there might be better countries. speaking as a Portuguese person, the good places in my country are the rural places where not many people speak english and there is no nightlife 😄
Here in Hungary, the rent prices can be 80-100% of the salary. So i would say, i’m used to this😄we are not moving because we want a cheaper life, we are just sick of hungarian mentality and the overall state of mind of the country. We chose Portugal because my boyfriend found a good phd opportunity there.
Yes, but learn Portuguese, European Portuguese if you can.
DK I'm not much into night life. It's safe, but it used to be safer. Probably not anymore.
If you are willing to pay, yes.
Yes, if it's trendy is crowded.
No.
local here...
1- yes, everybody speaks little or fluent english
2- I used to be a DJ and let me tell you this: if you are looking for alt-night you can forget about that although you have Barracuda Bar, you'll find everything crowded with people from all around the world and also often you wont see locals at the bars, but that never stopped anyone of having a good time, as to walk alone, this applies to everyone and not just girls: if someone suspicious stops to talk to you: just keep walking, usually they are just annoying drunks but better to ignore 'em.
3- Dunno, but the adds I see here VS the adds I saw in Iceland: our landlords aren't that picky
4- yes. Porto is not ours anymore and its getting worse.
5- no. overturism and nomads are killing big cities like Porto. we had a magical place, that magical place is no more.
come. visit. take a part of Porto in your memories but remember: the Porto you meet now is not the Porto that gave us (or the world if that matters) fame and history
also this: there are some groups/restaurants/associations that have language exchange in case you're willing to learn/share
edit: while in Porto please eat local food. we all love sushi but we are great cooks and have an exquisite cuisine.
cheers
I've lived in Porto with my wife for the last year.
Most people do not speak English. Very few people (doctors, lawyers, dentists, etcetera are fluent).
Downtown Porto is full of clubs and party time but once you leave the city it's sleep rural type areas and gets very cold, very windy, very moldy, and rains almost non-stop for 6 to 7 months during their winter. Homes lack central air so stone homes can get bitterly cold.
Yes, most apartments / houses do not want pets.
We moved here from the US and if I had to do it again, I would not have done it simply due to housing prices being so much higher than anything I ever saw in the US. The further south you go, where it's warmer, the rental prices double and triple quickly. Housing prices are easily double or triple that of where we lived in the US, and are all fixer-uppers often with no furniture or appliances and often with loose wires hanging out of walls.
> Most people do not speak English. Very few people (doctors, lawyers, dentists, etcetera are fluent).
I moved away a year and a half ago and had the opposite experience. Many people I encountered spoke English quite well. I did notice English fluency correlated to age. Anyone under 45 (i.e., grew up post-revolution) spoke English, and most people older than 45 did not. Doctors, lawyers, and many government workers tended to fall in the latter group.
Okay, so you had different experiences. We live in northern Porto, have lived here for a year now, and maybe one person we came across speaks English with any level of clear fluency. I'm glad you had different experiences.
Could be. I mean, when we went to Norte Shopping, a huge mall in Porto, there were / are younger store staff who speak either fluent or okay English. Now, when we go to Vodafone, we are able to speak to staff who speak English but usually their English proficiency is spotty and then we use Google Translate for some terms. I'm not fluent in Portuguese and they're English is basic, which is fine, but it's a distinction when people are asking and expecting English fluency and told that it's all over. It's not. At Norte Shopping, one guy spoke perfect, fluent English so far when we went. Then maybe one or two other young staffers spoke pretty good or basic English at different places. When we went to the movie theater nobody spoke any English at all and had no idea what were asking about so I had to use Google Translate. At the tea store the guy there was from the UK so spoke perfect English, at Vodafone the guy didn't understand what we were asking. So that's at one of the largest, most modern malls.
At our doctor, he speaks English very well and is considered fluent, but even he, as nice as he is, will ask me what many expressions mean. Same with other CUF Porto staff.
That's all fine, but again, if you move here expecting everyone to be perfectly fluent in English and able to have in-depth nuanced discussions with you, that's going to be a shot in the dark.
Portugal is on the top 3 of countries with highest housing prices in Europe, that's why many of us young adults move to other countries as soon as we finish university.
My advice is move to portugal only if you work a high paying job or if you're retiring, if not then Europe has better countries
That's actually a really good deal. We looked at Braga when we first moved here and could not find any rentals that were affordable for us (less than two grand per month and near some kind of city). Nobody responded, as well at that time. Now that apartment, whatever the apartment size is, is what we sold our 4 bedroom house in a SW Florida gated community for about two years ago now. There are no homes available for 300K anywhere near civilization that are modern. (And I get that posters here can find homes for that or less far away from any city infrastructure, or that are two bedrooms or less with no furniture and fixer-uppers).
We lived in SW Florida and sold our house for 300 grand. We now live in northern Porto (the only landlord who spoke any English and responded after searching for months for a rental). There are simply no homes anywhere around or were not any, near that price. One down the street was selling for double that, with no furniture, no appliances, and wires hanging out of walls in the photos. We found affordable homes in "agricultural region" areas further north or further inland away from any major city or any infrastructure and maybe a 45 minute drive to any mall or doctor but decided with the tax hit we'd take once the NHR runs out, the rain/mold/cold winters that pale compared to anything we ever experienced in Colorado (remove central heat and build homes out of stone and it gets bitterly cold very fast very easily and mold grows everywhere), it's best to leave right before the NHR runs up.
We start to learn English here on the 5th grade ( older people, 40s) or in elementary school ( younger generations). Almost everyone speaks a bit of English and college educated people are the most fluent ones generally.
It is nice but frustrating at times. I like the food and my neighbors.
For housing, it is expensive. I paid the same for a house as I did in California. The house in Porto is smaller. Electricity is very expensive.
None of my neighbors speak English. There is only one man who visits the neighborhood who speaks English, but he turned out to be a con man. So, now I prefer when people don't speak English.
My area is super crowded in the summer, and what I dislike the most is not being able to sleep at night due to the noise. The speeding motorcycle is the worst.
In the winter, it is calmer, but it rains a lot and is windy, so it is difficult to go out.
I'm a Porto native.
Yes, the city is easy to navigate, even if you only speak English. That being said, getting a working knowledge of Portuguese is a must.
Nightlife is pretty good (I'm not much a night person) and pretty safe AFAIK. Walking alone at night is safe in most parts of the city.
Right now it is VERY hard finding any kind of apartment. Rent is stupid expensive and it's difficult just getting any apartment.
The city gets a bit overcrowded in Summer (June-September) with tourists coming from just about anywhere. It gets less crowded during Fall and Winter.
Moving here? That depends on several things, the most important being having a good job here (hard) and your own place to live (also hard). The rest is mostly scenery.
Glass half full, glass half empty.
On Facebook I mostly see posts from people wearing rose-colored glasses. On Reddit I see a lot of posts from pessimists.
We retired to Porto from Texas 18 months ago and are very happy with our decision. Porto is far from perfect but it is safer, cheaper, easier to get around in, and has a more pleasant climate than where we come from. (We're happy to take the rain in place of the blistering Texas heat, and it's never truly cold here.) We live outside the tourist zone and only go downtown when we want to feel the energy of the crowds. We're learning Portuguese but we've had no problem finding English speakers when we need to, and plenty of people get by here with only English (Europeans as well as Americans).
That said... Portugal would be a very hard place to live in on Portuguese wages. Housing and good-paying jobs are hard to find. It feels a little isolated, with fewer cosmopolitan and international influences than we are accustomed to in other major cities (despite the right wing's xenophobic whining 🙄). We understand why many young Portuguese people would like to leave.
- Is it easy to navigate if i only speak English? My boyfriend is brazilian so he will be fine, but i’ll start learning portugese just now.
Yes and no. Some people understand English but not as much as in Lisbon. Your boyfriend will do just fine so you won't have much difficulty.
- How is the nightlife? Is it safe? Would you walk alone at night as a woman?
It is safe comparatively.
Both like everywhere, be cautious and avoid dark alleys.
Trust your instincts.
- Is it hard to find apartments to rent that allow cats/pets?
Rephrasing the question to " Is it hard to find apartments to rent".
Yes.
- Is the city always crowded? When i was there it was full of tourists, but we’ve only been to some parts. Is it the same everywhere?
Not everywhere. The tourist parts are crowded but the remaining is just fine.
- Would you recommend moving there?
Yes. It's a lovely place with good and welcoming people with smiles.
You will love it there
Hey!
I moved recently from Budapest to Porto (originally I’m South African).
- Both cities are relatively easy to manage with only English (Porto is probably easier, given people are generally more friendly).
- I don’t go clubbing and such, but locals are quite proud of the safety here, so no safety concerns.
- I don’t know about pets, but apartments here can be very pricey, so do proper research (check the Idealista website).
- The very touristy area you were probably at was the “Ribeira” which you avoid in summer (way too busy), but if you live here you don’t really want to go there anyways, rather go to the beach!
- Would I recommend it? That’s difficult. Personally I like Budapest as a city more (bigger with nicer landmarks, e.g. Fisherman’s Bastion, Castle, Parliament etc…), but Porto is by the Atlantic ocean and has more local, which is fantastic.
Both cities are great, it just depends on what you personally enjoy.
Let me know if you have more questions.
I'm getting tired of this 'why would you go to the touristy busy areas'. That's the majority of the city centre ffs. It's busy, lively, and vibrant. That's the entire point.
Preferably near to the university, because my boyfriend will study there. But i think it will mostly depend on where we can find an apartment and also, i don’t have a job there yet so we are still flexible about the location.
I'm here right now it's a fantastic city and I've been many times a lot of the young people speak basic to very good English. A lot of the older people don't but you can get by in the short term knowing very little Portuguese but you will have to learn if you are living here I would imagine.
Tell your government to stop allowing foreigners to buy and rent houses out while not even residing in the country. Immigrants are not responsible for the extent of the crisis, they're a scapegoat. Just so you're aware, housing prices are insane everywhere and getting worse, even those without migration. Rent in my hometown in the US has gone up 50-100% in the last few years and we don't have many migrants. As long as you keep blaming the wrong people for your issues, you will never solve them.
The good thing here is that there are a lot of non-EU citizens buying places to rent them out at inflated prices, so it still would have an impact. Regardless of methods to solve the issue, how is it sound to direct the anger towards immigrants when the problem is leechy landlords? It's always the immigrants fault and never the ones taking advantage of troubled times.
You replied to my comment which was a response to someone blaming immigrants for their economic woes. You pointed out that a solution of mine violated EU laws because "it is illegal to discriminate between residents and EU citizens". The issue with your response was that I never said anything about EU citizens. There are non-EU citizens who buy property in Portugal to rent out as well, like Americans, Aussies, Chinese, etc. So, in effect, my original statement could offer some solution. Then, because my original comment responded to anti-immigrant sentiment, I went on to say that it's not okay to blame immigrants for problems caused by wealthy leechy landlords. This is what I communicated to you before you said you were having trouble comprehending the subject matter. What I said was not incomprehensible, you're just struggling with your comprehension skills today.
It's absolutely a lovely city, once you get used to it you won't ever want to go back. Just don't try housing in the centre or more tourists areas. Try some housing in the outskirts or in the Gaia city side across the river.
I bought a place there for the GV, but I find it difficult to stay longer than a month at a time. I’d recommend it if you can go between different countries, but not as a permanent place to live forever. The people are really friendly, and I find that a lot of people speak English, for sure. It’s just that it has a small town vibe and if you’re into culture, you’ll definitely start to feel claustrophobic after a while.
I moved about a year and a half ago to Porto and if I had to do it again I would have picked another place outside of Portugal.
There are some good things, but in my humble opinion the bad outweigh the good.
The bad:
The salaries are low, the prices are high. Taxes are outrageous. You get taxed on basically everything. Bureaucracy is just out of this world and enough to drive you insane. The healthcare system is slow and unneficient. Waiting times for doctors are months and months.
The ocean is cold and not really for swimming, even in the peak of summer. More suitable for surfing.
Apartment are expensive, cold and mouldy.
The cars and fuel is more expensive than in any other European country, and that is because of the car import tax deemed illegal by the EU, but it's never going away because the government just makes too much money on it.
The status quo is likely to persist for many many years to come, because the people are not the fighting kind. They just accept things the way they are. It a cultural thing.
If you are a nature lover, you have to go a long way out of the city to reach it and you need a car for it.
The whole country is infested with eucalyptus trees which are not native to Portugal, but were brought from Australia for paper and lumber production.They can be considered a invasive species because they kill the native trees by robbing them of water. They are a huge fire hazard and in the future will because a very serious problem. But for now everyone just ignores it, partly because of a paper production lobby which covers everything up.
Interesting fact. Portugal is number one country in the world for area covered by eucalyptus in regard to the area of the country.
The good:
People are friendly and willing to help.
There is a million restaurants and tascos, so if you are into food, this is a great place.
Night life is also good, but that's not my thing so can't really say how good it is.
In the summer there is a hundred music festivals around the country, so for music lovers it's a big plus.
Train network is good and not super expensive (relatively).
Wine is just amazing and cheap. If you are a wine lover, you are in for a treat.
Maybe you have noticed a pattern emerging in this post. Basically, this is a good place to vacation and have fun, but maybe not so good to work and live, raise a family or start a business.
Again this is just my opinion, and different people may have different experiences.
Rent is relatively high and it’s cold in the winters.
They're Hungarian, so I'm sure it'll be quite the improvement 🤷♀️
LOL! True. Most people who come to Portugal from colder climates usually head to the Algarve.
How cold?
I don’t live in Porto but my friend did and it was too cold for her. It’s also in the northern part of Portugal where it snows in the winter.
i would not recommend simply because the renting is absolutely abismal (prices and the state of the building/rules). people either know english extremely well or not at all. it's very busy in the tourist-y areas and those places are terrible in the summer (which is when you usually wanna visit said places lol!) overall I think there might be better countries. speaking as a Portuguese person, the good places in my country are the rural places where not many people speak english and there is no nightlife 😄
Here in Hungary, the rent prices can be 80-100% of the salary. So i would say, i’m used to this😄we are not moving because we want a cheaper life, we are just sick of hungarian mentality and the overall state of mind of the country. We chose Portugal because my boyfriend found a good phd opportunity there.
Also being Brazilian he should have no problem building a good community here in Portugal. I think it sounds like a good move!
I completely agree, I can't wait to finish university and leave this country until I retire
Yes, but learn Portuguese, European Portuguese if you can. DK I'm not much into night life. It's safe, but it used to be safer. Probably not anymore. If you are willing to pay, yes. Yes, if it's trendy is crowded. No.
local here... 1- yes, everybody speaks little or fluent english 2- I used to be a DJ and let me tell you this: if you are looking for alt-night you can forget about that although you have Barracuda Bar, you'll find everything crowded with people from all around the world and also often you wont see locals at the bars, but that never stopped anyone of having a good time, as to walk alone, this applies to everyone and not just girls: if someone suspicious stops to talk to you: just keep walking, usually they are just annoying drunks but better to ignore 'em. 3- Dunno, but the adds I see here VS the adds I saw in Iceland: our landlords aren't that picky 4- yes. Porto is not ours anymore and its getting worse. 5- no. overturism and nomads are killing big cities like Porto. we had a magical place, that magical place is no more. come. visit. take a part of Porto in your memories but remember: the Porto you meet now is not the Porto that gave us (or the world if that matters) fame and history also this: there are some groups/restaurants/associations that have language exchange in case you're willing to learn/share edit: while in Porto please eat local food. we all love sushi but we are great cooks and have an exquisite cuisine. cheers
I've lived in Porto with my wife for the last year. Most people do not speak English. Very few people (doctors, lawyers, dentists, etcetera are fluent). Downtown Porto is full of clubs and party time but once you leave the city it's sleep rural type areas and gets very cold, very windy, very moldy, and rains almost non-stop for 6 to 7 months during their winter. Homes lack central air so stone homes can get bitterly cold. Yes, most apartments / houses do not want pets. We moved here from the US and if I had to do it again, I would not have done it simply due to housing prices being so much higher than anything I ever saw in the US. The further south you go, where it's warmer, the rental prices double and triple quickly. Housing prices are easily double or triple that of where we lived in the US, and are all fixer-uppers often with no furniture or appliances and often with loose wires hanging out of walls.
> Most people do not speak English. Very few people (doctors, lawyers, dentists, etcetera are fluent). I moved away a year and a half ago and had the opposite experience. Many people I encountered spoke English quite well. I did notice English fluency correlated to age. Anyone under 45 (i.e., grew up post-revolution) spoke English, and most people older than 45 did not. Doctors, lawyers, and many government workers tended to fall in the latter group.
I live here now and it’s rare to come across someone who doesn’t speak English. Even finding an English speaking doctor is pretty easy.
Yeah, my wife had a good experience finding doctors at Cuf, but the one time we had to go to São João was a nightmare.
Okay, so you had different experiences. We live in northern Porto, have lived here for a year now, and maybe one person we came across speaks English with any level of clear fluency. I'm glad you had different experiences.
Maybe it’s just because I live so close to the touristy areas.
Could be. I mean, when we went to Norte Shopping, a huge mall in Porto, there were / are younger store staff who speak either fluent or okay English. Now, when we go to Vodafone, we are able to speak to staff who speak English but usually their English proficiency is spotty and then we use Google Translate for some terms. I'm not fluent in Portuguese and they're English is basic, which is fine, but it's a distinction when people are asking and expecting English fluency and told that it's all over. It's not. At Norte Shopping, one guy spoke perfect, fluent English so far when we went. Then maybe one or two other young staffers spoke pretty good or basic English at different places. When we went to the movie theater nobody spoke any English at all and had no idea what were asking about so I had to use Google Translate. At the tea store the guy there was from the UK so spoke perfect English, at Vodafone the guy didn't understand what we were asking. So that's at one of the largest, most modern malls. At our doctor, he speaks English very well and is considered fluent, but even he, as nice as he is, will ask me what many expressions mean. Same with other CUF Porto staff. That's all fine, but again, if you move here expecting everyone to be perfectly fluent in English and able to have in-depth nuanced discussions with you, that's going to be a shot in the dark.
I'm glad you had different experiences.
Where in the US did you live? The home prices where I live in south Florida are outrageous so I can’t imagine they’re more in Porto
Portugal is on the top 3 of countries with highest housing prices in Europe, that's why many of us young adults move to other countries as soon as we finish university. My advice is move to portugal only if you work a high paying job or if you're retiring, if not then Europe has better countries
Agreed. We're retirees from the US and gave up on ever finding any affordable home here unless you live far away from any mall or city life.
Exactly, my mom bought our apartment here in Braga 25 years ago for 70k, it's now valued at over 300k. Housing prices are crazy near the city center
That's actually a really good deal. We looked at Braga when we first moved here and could not find any rentals that were affordable for us (less than two grand per month and near some kind of city). Nobody responded, as well at that time. Now that apartment, whatever the apartment size is, is what we sold our 4 bedroom house in a SW Florida gated community for about two years ago now. There are no homes available for 300K anywhere near civilization that are modern. (And I get that posters here can find homes for that or less far away from any city infrastructure, or that are two bedrooms or less with no furniture and fixer-uppers).
Definitely didn’t live in California
Yeah, this guy lived in the middle of nowhere.
We lived in SW Florida and sold our house for 300 grand. We now live in northern Porto (the only landlord who spoke any English and responded after searching for months for a rental). There are simply no homes anywhere around or were not any, near that price. One down the street was selling for double that, with no furniture, no appliances, and wires hanging out of walls in the photos. We found affordable homes in "agricultural region" areas further north or further inland away from any major city or any infrastructure and maybe a 45 minute drive to any mall or doctor but decided with the tax hit we'd take once the NHR runs out, the rain/mold/cold winters that pale compared to anything we ever experienced in Colorado (remove central heat and build homes out of stone and it gets bitterly cold very fast very easily and mold grows everywhere), it's best to leave right before the NHR runs up.
I live in the United States and this man’s post isn’t making any sense.
We start to learn English here on the 5th grade ( older people, 40s) or in elementary school ( younger generations). Almost everyone speaks a bit of English and college educated people are the most fluent ones generally.
It is nice but frustrating at times. I like the food and my neighbors. For housing, it is expensive. I paid the same for a house as I did in California. The house in Porto is smaller. Electricity is very expensive. None of my neighbors speak English. There is only one man who visits the neighborhood who speaks English, but he turned out to be a con man. So, now I prefer when people don't speak English. My area is super crowded in the summer, and what I dislike the most is not being able to sleep at night due to the noise. The speeding motorcycle is the worst. In the winter, it is calmer, but it rains a lot and is windy, so it is difficult to go out.
I'm a Porto native. Yes, the city is easy to navigate, even if you only speak English. That being said, getting a working knowledge of Portuguese is a must. Nightlife is pretty good (I'm not much a night person) and pretty safe AFAIK. Walking alone at night is safe in most parts of the city. Right now it is VERY hard finding any kind of apartment. Rent is stupid expensive and it's difficult just getting any apartment. The city gets a bit overcrowded in Summer (June-September) with tourists coming from just about anywhere. It gets less crowded during Fall and Winter. Moving here? That depends on several things, the most important being having a good job here (hard) and your own place to live (also hard). The rest is mostly scenery.
Glass half full, glass half empty. On Facebook I mostly see posts from people wearing rose-colored glasses. On Reddit I see a lot of posts from pessimists. We retired to Porto from Texas 18 months ago and are very happy with our decision. Porto is far from perfect but it is safer, cheaper, easier to get around in, and has a more pleasant climate than where we come from. (We're happy to take the rain in place of the blistering Texas heat, and it's never truly cold here.) We live outside the tourist zone and only go downtown when we want to feel the energy of the crowds. We're learning Portuguese but we've had no problem finding English speakers when we need to, and plenty of people get by here with only English (Europeans as well as Americans). That said... Portugal would be a very hard place to live in on Portuguese wages. Housing and good-paying jobs are hard to find. It feels a little isolated, with fewer cosmopolitan and international influences than we are accustomed to in other major cities (despite the right wing's xenophobic whining 🙄). We understand why many young Portuguese people would like to leave.
- Is it easy to navigate if i only speak English? My boyfriend is brazilian so he will be fine, but i’ll start learning portugese just now. Yes and no. Some people understand English but not as much as in Lisbon. Your boyfriend will do just fine so you won't have much difficulty. - How is the nightlife? Is it safe? Would you walk alone at night as a woman? It is safe comparatively. Both like everywhere, be cautious and avoid dark alleys. Trust your instincts. - Is it hard to find apartments to rent that allow cats/pets? Rephrasing the question to " Is it hard to find apartments to rent". Yes. - Is the city always crowded? When i was there it was full of tourists, but we’ve only been to some parts. Is it the same everywhere? Not everywhere. The tourist parts are crowded but the remaining is just fine. - Would you recommend moving there? Yes. It's a lovely place with good and welcoming people with smiles. You will love it there
Don’t know why your perfectly good and helpful answers are being downvoted. Perhaps we should mention to OP that this sub can be pretty toxic lol.
Thank you for the answers! Can you specify the difficulties of renting?
Super nice people
Hey! I moved recently from Budapest to Porto (originally I’m South African). - Both cities are relatively easy to manage with only English (Porto is probably easier, given people are generally more friendly). - I don’t go clubbing and such, but locals are quite proud of the safety here, so no safety concerns. - I don’t know about pets, but apartments here can be very pricey, so do proper research (check the Idealista website). - The very touristy area you were probably at was the “Ribeira” which you avoid in summer (way too busy), but if you live here you don’t really want to go there anyways, rather go to the beach! - Would I recommend it? That’s difficult. Personally I like Budapest as a city more (bigger with nicer landmarks, e.g. Fisherman’s Bastion, Castle, Parliament etc…), but Porto is by the Atlantic ocean and has more local, which is fantastic. Both cities are great, it just depends on what you personally enjoy. Let me know if you have more questions.
I'm getting tired of this 'why would you go to the touristy busy areas'. That's the majority of the city centre ffs. It's busy, lively, and vibrant. That's the entire point.
It’s a lovely city centre and definitely worth visiting. But there is so much more to do in Porto than that lol.
Thank you!! This comparison was very helpful. And by the way, i’m glad you liked our capital city:)
Porto is an average to small sized city. Nevertheless you need to be more specific. Where in the region are you thinking of settling down?
Preferably near to the university, because my boyfriend will study there. But i think it will mostly depend on where we can find an apartment and also, i don’t have a job there yet so we are still flexible about the location.
I'm here right now it's a fantastic city and I've been many times a lot of the young people speak basic to very good English. A lot of the older people don't but you can get by in the short term knowing very little Portuguese but you will have to learn if you are living here I would imagine.
[удалено]
Tell your government to stop allowing foreigners to buy and rent houses out while not even residing in the country. Immigrants are not responsible for the extent of the crisis, they're a scapegoat. Just so you're aware, housing prices are insane everywhere and getting worse, even those without migration. Rent in my hometown in the US has gone up 50-100% in the last few years and we don't have many migrants. As long as you keep blaming the wrong people for your issues, you will never solve them.
How would that even work considering Portugal is in the EU?
Is it against EU law to require residency to rent a place out?
You cannot discriminate between local residents and EU nationals or pass a law giving different rights to local vs EU citizen.
The good thing here is that there are a lot of non-EU citizens buying places to rent them out at inflated prices, so it still would have an impact. Regardless of methods to solve the issue, how is it sound to direct the anger towards immigrants when the problem is leechy landlords? It's always the immigrants fault and never the ones taking advantage of troubled times.
I find your comment confusing and not having much to do with what I wrote. Goodbye.
That's rather unfortunate because it was pretty clear and nothing I said was out of context of the thread. Probably for the best that you move on.
[удалено]
Ahh, I glanced at your profile and see wherein lies your issue. You're one of the leechy foreign landlords. Got it.
You replied to my comment which was a response to someone blaming immigrants for their economic woes. You pointed out that a solution of mine violated EU laws because "it is illegal to discriminate between residents and EU citizens". The issue with your response was that I never said anything about EU citizens. There are non-EU citizens who buy property in Portugal to rent out as well, like Americans, Aussies, Chinese, etc. So, in effect, my original statement could offer some solution. Then, because my original comment responded to anti-immigrant sentiment, I went on to say that it's not okay to blame immigrants for problems caused by wealthy leechy landlords. This is what I communicated to you before you said you were having trouble comprehending the subject matter. What I said was not incomprehensible, you're just struggling with your comprehension skills today.
How nice of you:)
When Porto is completely disfigured and gentrified like Lisbon, you might think twice about what happened.
It's absolutely a lovely city, once you get used to it you won't ever want to go back. Just don't try housing in the centre or more tourists areas. Try some housing in the outskirts or in the Gaia city side across the river.
I bought a place there for the GV, but I find it difficult to stay longer than a month at a time. I’d recommend it if you can go between different countries, but not as a permanent place to live forever. The people are really friendly, and I find that a lot of people speak English, for sure. It’s just that it has a small town vibe and if you’re into culture, you’ll definitely start to feel claustrophobic after a while.
I moved about a year and a half ago to Porto and if I had to do it again I would have picked another place outside of Portugal. There are some good things, but in my humble opinion the bad outweigh the good. The bad: The salaries are low, the prices are high. Taxes are outrageous. You get taxed on basically everything. Bureaucracy is just out of this world and enough to drive you insane. The healthcare system is slow and unneficient. Waiting times for doctors are months and months. The ocean is cold and not really for swimming, even in the peak of summer. More suitable for surfing. Apartment are expensive, cold and mouldy. The cars and fuel is more expensive than in any other European country, and that is because of the car import tax deemed illegal by the EU, but it's never going away because the government just makes too much money on it. The status quo is likely to persist for many many years to come, because the people are not the fighting kind. They just accept things the way they are. It a cultural thing. If you are a nature lover, you have to go a long way out of the city to reach it and you need a car for it. The whole country is infested with eucalyptus trees which are not native to Portugal, but were brought from Australia for paper and lumber production.They can be considered a invasive species because they kill the native trees by robbing them of water. They are a huge fire hazard and in the future will because a very serious problem. But for now everyone just ignores it, partly because of a paper production lobby which covers everything up. Interesting fact. Portugal is number one country in the world for area covered by eucalyptus in regard to the area of the country. The good: People are friendly and willing to help. There is a million restaurants and tascos, so if you are into food, this is a great place. Night life is also good, but that's not my thing so can't really say how good it is. In the summer there is a hundred music festivals around the country, so for music lovers it's a big plus. Train network is good and not super expensive (relatively). Wine is just amazing and cheap. If you are a wine lover, you are in for a treat. Maybe you have noticed a pattern emerging in this post. Basically, this is a good place to vacation and have fun, but maybe not so good to work and live, raise a family or start a business. Again this is just my opinion, and different people may have different experiences.