Portugal has for some time been one of the favorite places in Europe, that people have said that they would like to develop a holiday home or retirement home. Property is quite a bit more expensive than in Spain but there are fewer risks or problems.
The Portuguese are also more pro British than the Spanish, some of which is accounted for by Spain's claim on every bit of land around them, including historically Portugal, and they have looked on Britain as a potential savior. Today within the new political Europe there may not be a risk, but a historic tradition has left a friendly attitude and feeling towards the British in Portugal.
We have obtained a lot of language material and have an experiment running with a few members to see if we can devise a way of simplified communication that would allow more people who do not currently understand the language, to get by in Portugal. So far we have not reached a decision either way, as to if this is a practical way to handle language problems or not. In written form it looks very similar to Spanish, but is quite different when spoken. We have chosen Portugal to experiment with language material, as fewer members will have had the chance to learn Portuguese, than would have had some experience with French.
We have a web site registered at www.Self-build-Portugal.com to allow the club to extend its specialist coverage to cover self building in Portugal in depth. There is as yet no date set for when this site should be live, but perhaps towards the end of 2005 we will start to see a first version up and running with improvements appearing shortly after.
If you are interested in developing in Portugal or know someone who has, please let us know, we are always keen to hear what others have experienced or may be thinking at this time.
Study group of members
We have a group of members looking at building holiday/retirement homes in Portugal.
Becoming a part of this group would allow you to share information, combine research trips and pull in specialists to talk to the group. A second group is being considered to look at some of the Portuguese islands.
Some may also decide to take part in a group project where we get a project manager to manage the build and who both speaks Portuguese and English and is experienced in developing in Portugal.
This group is fairly new and will not be meeting until Easter 2005, so members, if a holiday or retirement home appeals to you in Portugal, even if your current priority is a UK build for a main home, why not join this group and share the dream, as well as becoming more prepared for the future.
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