Best Places In The World To Retire

The cost of rent a home in Algarve varies based on what kind of home you are renting, how many bedrooms it has, whether it is an apartment or a villa, and so on. It also varies depending on the length of time that you intend to stay.

 

There are two types of rentals in the Algarve.  One is the summer, short-term rentals similar to the ones they have in Florida, California, or anywhere that is a holiday spot. In the summer, a two-bedroom apartment, which...

The cost of rent a home in Algarve varies based on what kind of home you are renting, how many bedrooms it has, whether it is an apartment or a villa, and so on. It also varies depending on the length of time that you intend to stay.

 

There are two types of rentals in the Algarve.  One is the summer, short-term rentals similar to the ones they have in Florida, California, or anywhere that is a holiday spot. In the summer, a two-bedroom apartment, which is probably the most common type of apartment to rent, would start between €500 (US $550 or £360) a week to about €1,250 (US $1,375 or £900) a week, depending if you have the views and other amenities. A three-bedroom villa would start you at about €750 (US $825 or £540) a week to around €3,000 (US $3,300 or £2,175) a week. The price depends on where the villa is located, the views, and the amenities. The price range is very large because there is a huge range of real estate products here in Algarve.

 

The second category of rental is the winter, long-term stay or permanent rentals. The average rule for this type of rental is that one week of summer rental would be slightly less than one month of winter rental. That is the rule of thumb that we use all the time and it works very well. A two-bedroom apartment in the winter, per month costs around €500 (US $550 or £360) to €900 (US $990 or £650) and a villa in the winter would cost you €1,200 (US $1320 or £870) to €2,000 (US $2,200 or £1,450). The reason why it is lower than the high end in the summer is because many of the very expensive villas in the summer would not be target market for winter rentals because they would be too large or too expensive for most of the winter lets.

 

The winter rental is slightly different than the 12-month rental. A winter rental is a rental for people who would be looking to stay in a warmer place like the Algarve during the coldest months in places like Canada, the US, England, Sweden, and Germany. They would typically stay here between October and November and maybe around March to May. Those would be your typical winter months. We are getting an increasing number of people who are looking for these winter months because of recently approved legislation called the non-habitual resident status, which allows pensioners from abroad, newly-arriving and resident pensioners to receive their pension tax free in Portugal. To do so, they have to remain in the country for 183 days or more. Of course, most people do not want to be in the cold countries during winter so they spend their winters abroad with a tax advantage and they come over to Portugal to rent for 6 to 8 months. This way, they get their tax benefit and spend their winters in the sun.

 

The year-long resident with a12-month contract would typically pay more than the winter let rate because the rate would include the very expensive summer months, and so the monthly rental price would be higher than the monthly price for winter let. Using the same example as above, on a year round basis, a two-bedroom apartment would cost between €1,000 (US $1,100 or £725) and €1,500 ($1,650 or £1,088). For a two-bedroom villa, it would cost around easily €1,500 (US $1,650 or £1,088) to €3,000 ($3,300 or £2,175) a month. These rentals are located in the nicer areas of Algarve with the top end being in the nicest areas. There is enough nice quality stock of rentals in the Algarve so that no one needs to feel as though they were living in a very basic, bare bones location. Even our cheapest stock, which is a one-bedroom apartment and costs around €350 (US $385 or £254) a month in the winter, are fully furnished and within walking distance to shops, restaurants, and sometimes even to the beach. Not all rentals are like that but there is no lack of quality, fortunately, in the Algarve.

 

(Rental a Algarve Senior Living, Algarve, Portugal, pictured.)

One of the worst reasons to retire overseas is expecting everything to be very cheap. It’s not. I lived in Hawaii for a year and 90% of everything in Hawaii is imported, so it is cheaper to go out to eat. It is the same in Panama. There are things in Panama that do come from the US, but you pay the extra cost of having that.

 

Panama is a developing nation and the rising standards of living reflect that. Some retirement companies seduce people by...

One of the worst reasons to retire overseas is expecting everything to be very cheap. It’s not. I lived in Hawaii for a year and 90% of everything in Hawaii is imported, so it is cheaper to go out to eat. It is the same in Panama. There are things in Panama that do come from the US, but you pay the extra cost of having that.

 

Panama is a developing nation and the rising standards of living reflect that. Some retirement companies seduce people by saying that you can buy a beach house for US $59,000. Well, there may be something out there for that amount, but it would be a shack on a beach that is not yet developed.

 

Some retirement companies tell people that the price of fuel, groceries, and similar things in the US is very cheap here in Panama, and that is not 100% true. They make people go to their seminars. You will pay for your own flight; you will pay a ridiculous amount for your hotel accommodation in Panama City. Then they have seminars and they rush people to different places, such as to an immigration attorney they know, who will fix people’s paperwork. If you want to buy property, they will tell you to go to a specific attorney, and they all get paid under the table for things that we do at no charge, and that is disappointing for us.