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General experience in Porto and the reality of Portugal beyond fancy headlines

Hi there,

In this post I am going to tell you about the experience in the area where we bought the house, in the city and the reality of the country in general. Although when I wrote this post, I was relatively happy with the country, many times I have felt like I live in a city without law or justice. But I will tell you about this in detail in a future post.

My neighborhood

As you have seen in other posts, we bought the house in the Campanhã area, although in the farthest part. Walking we are one hour from downtown, 25 minutes from a Mercadona, 25 minutes from a Lidl, 40 minutes from the medical center, 45 minutes from a Leroy Merlin, 25 minutes from the Campanhã metro station, and 5 minutes from 2 walking routes.

For us these are accessible distances.

What we liked the most about the house is that we only had neighbors on one side. Our area feels like a small town and the noise you hear is from the dogs barking sometimes and the bus that passes by every half hour. We gained a lot of quality of life thanks to the peace and silence that we have at home.

In the first few weeks, some salespeople from an alarm company knocked on the door and told me that a few blocks up there was a drug cartel.

One of the days that we returned home in Uber, the driver happened to live a few blocks from our house, and he told us that the area in which we lived had improved a lot. Before, people would get into the lives of others. There was also a lot of alcohol and neither the sleep nor the tranquility of others was respected.

He also told us that 15 years ago you would walk down the street and see people injecting drugs into their arms. Although fortunately this is no longer seen, it is known by all that the people of the area live off drug trafficking.

Overall experience in Portugal

  • Drugs

The drug consumption situation in Porto is serious and anywhere in the center and surroundings you can see how they shamelessly sell drugs.

We have seen that the police can do little or nothing about it.

Here is a very interesting article on this topic:

Once hailed for decriminalizing drugs, Portugal is now having doubts

Tráfico de droga viaja pelos bairros do Porto com toxicodependentes a injetarem-se em plena luz do dia

  • People

Since we were in Madeira in March 2021, I have been delighted with the friendliness and politeness of the Portuguese people. In Porto, apart from the bad experience with the house, we have met very polite people.

6 months after living in Porto, it still seems to me that the Portuguese are always happy.

People take good care of you, they try to explain things to you, they congratulate you on your level of Portuguese (even if it’s not good) and they even try to speak your language.

I am amazed that innocence and trust in others still exists. If you go to a museum and say that you are a resident, they believe you and do not ask for any type of documentation. When Diego was bitten by a dog in Gondomar, the nurse asked the owner if the dogs had been vaccinated, the man offered to go get the documentation and the nurse told him that it was not necessary, because they trusted people.

I am always amazed because children in Portugal, in general, are highly educated. When you see rude children screaming and making a mess, it’s because they are Spanish or French.

Something curious is that there are still people who are driving and stop to ask for directions as if they did not know how to use Google Maps.

Even so, there are people who live by defrauding others and especially foreigners. The publicity that there is now about Portugal, the only thing it does is make the situation worse because when you hire a service, everyone wants to rob you and charge more than they should.

As soon as we arrived in Porto, an accountant charged us 50 euros for a 5-minute explanation and then she wanted us to pay her 40 euros per month for making a receipt.

Another negative aspect is that there are a lot of people who smoke. It does not reach the level of Spain, but it is annoying and there are places where the sidewalks and streets are covered in cigarette butts.

There is also a lot of marginality in the sense that many people throw garbage on the ground and do not pick up their dog’s excrement.

Another curious thing is that the people are very short, and I had not realized this the first time I visited Porto. I am short, but in Porto I feel like a basketball player.

  • Not a city for cyclists / A lot of motorcycles

Porto does not have a bike lane, beyond the promenade that goes along the river.

Within the city it is almost impossible to go by bicycle because there is no place for you to ride the bike.

We have gone to some places by bicycle (Andrea’s house, the Vila Nova de Gaia Decathlon, Matosinhos, Leroy Merlin) and it really becomes very stressful because of the traffic and because the drivers are the least respectful you can imagine.

Something that I hate with all my soul is that there are many people with the noisiest motorcycles and there is no place where they are not heard.

It is that even at night it is heard even if the motorcycle is kilometers away.

On the hiking trails you see more of these morons’ doing motocross than normal people walking. This is something that did not happen in Spain and that has been a change for the worse.

  • Public healthcare

For public health, the procedure is a little more complicated than in Spain. After they give you the NISS, which is the social security number, you must ask for the user number at the medical center. Once you have this number, you must ask at each medical center to see where they have space because most family doctors are overwhelmed.

I had asked to be admitted to one medical center and was then assigned a family doctor at another. Since we liked the doctor so much, we stayed there. They assigned us the doctor quickly even though there are people who wait months.

We fell in love with the GP. Alice is the nicest and most joyful thing you can imagine.

From the first consultation she asked us for blood and urine tests to have the basic information in the system since we were new. This is something unthinkable in Spain.

When she saw the results, she congratulated us and gave us both a high five. You really can’t imagine the rush of energy and optimism that this doctor gives.

I took all my medical records and told her about the checkups I did every year and she requested as many tests as possible. Those who have lived in Spain know that it costs your life for a doctor to deign to prescribe any exam.

In fact, I asked to be sent to physiotherapy because I have had plantar fasciitis for 3 years and they called me right away. I had 15 days of physiotherapy with visits every 2 weeks to follow up, and then they extended it to 8 weeks because there was no improvement. In Spain it took a year to get an appoinment for physiotherapy, the treatment was ridiculous and, in the end, as I said I felt the same, they gave me an appointment with the head physiotherapy doctor.

Another important thing is that you can communicate with the medical center by email and the reception staff manage emails efficiently.

In Portugal, public health has an agreement with almost all private clinics, so you can do the tests anywhere almost immediately. In addition, appointments with specialists are scheduled quickly and I mean less than a month, when in Spain you could wait more than a year.

In addition to the fact that you can choose the medical center, you can choose the hospital that you like the most. I chose the São João Hospital and although when I went it was always very crowded, everything worked well.

When in Spain the doctors are embittered by the terrible conditions they are in, they treat the patients badly and even so they fill their mouths saying that “they have the best healthcare in the world”, I feel that in Porto the doctors are more realistic.

My doctor lamented that an appointment with the cardiologist for Diego was going slowly when they had given it to him in 3 months. That is nothing if we compare to Spain.

When I asked her about the dentist, she told me that unfortunately this was a big problem for public health in Portugal since only children, pregnant women and the elderly in a precarious situation were covered. In Spain nobody has a dentist.

In short, about public health, we were happy.

As soon as we arrived in Porto, I had considered the option of taking out private insurance until we saw how public health worked.

The prices are like those in Spain, but in Portugal all insurances have co-payments and are quite high. When in Spain the copayment for a consultation can be 2 euros, in Portugal it is 15 euros. In addition, most do not have dental coverage.

In Portugal, the check-ups we had to do cost us 40 euros each and considering that we do 3 or 4 check-ups every year, it was not worth paying for private insurance.

In addition, that, with the public health of Portugal, we could do all these consultations without problem.

Private dental consultations range from 60 to 80 euros. In Spain I always paid 50 euros.

Although my experience has been excellent and even more so if I compare it with Spain, public health in Portugal is far from perfect. It is enough to look a little on social networks to discover the great scarcity and malfunction of the system.

  • Security

When I spent 3 months in the Algarve in 2021, I was impressed to see so many spectacular houses without bars or alarms.

In Porto it is the same, which gives the impression that there is no crime. In fact, the windows of my house do not have bars or any type of protection apart from glass.

Although I don’t go out at night, the city in general feels safe and the locals say that there is no insecurity.

In fact, when we moved from Valencia, we were afraid to leave the car in the street with all the things inside. They told us not to worry, that nothing was going to happen; that the only danger was to leave the cell phone in plain sight because there they would open the car to rob the phone.

My Venezuelan friend who lives in Porto tells me that she often sleeps with the door open.

Personally, as a woman I feel safer in Portugal than in Spain.

On the other hand, in cities like Setubal and Lisbon, insecurity has increased.

  • Administrative transactions

In general, doing paperwork in Porto seems less traumatic than in Spain and a little cheaper.

In Spain, just to update the NIE address, they asked me for such several requirements that I left it that way.

In Porto we did all the procedures without problem, quickly and without asking for things that were impossible to obtain. Of course, for procedures such as NIF you must arrive at 7am to queue because there is no way to make an appointment since the availability they give is for several months from now.

Almost everything works by previous appointment since the covid.

Regarding going to trial, the waiting time is approximately 3 years. Even so, for one of the complaints I made to the police they summoned me to testify in 6 months.

I did the procedure to validate my driving license and the medical certificate was given to me by the GP for free and then I paid 30 euros. In general, it was faster and cheaper than in Spain.

I filed a claim for a culvert that was loose and made a lot of noise when cars went by, and the next day it was fixed.

  • Living place

The rental crisis has become unsustainable, especially in Lisbon and Porto.

I already told you in other posts that in the summer of 2022 the tourist rentals of lofts that did not even have a dining table were between 2,000 and 3,000 euros per month. An atrocity.

For the locals things are not improving and for those who emigrate to Portugal, the situation is even more difficult.

I’m in a group of Latinos in Portugal and you can’t imagine the amount of crap rooms in shared apartments at 750 euros a month that I’ve seen. Rooms where even the rain seeps.

In Lisbon, people pay 450 euros a month for a bed in a shared room with a lot of people.

For a long-term rental, I have seen them ask for up to 10 months’ rent in advance along with tons of paperwork.

To this horror we must add the audacity of people who want to take advantage of others and I have seen many cases of people whose deposit is stolen, people who must flee due to situations of violence with their roommates, etc.

The fact that there is so much news attracting digital nomads, retirees and people with money who want to pay less taxes, in addition to causing rental prices to be crazy, has led to the rise of scams and illegalities.

In March 2023, the laws on the Golden Visa, vacation rentals and long-term rentals began to change.

Here I also comment on the great problem of finding someone to do any work or renovations in the house. There are many people who work permanently in a company and then do other jobs illegally outside and scam people. They don’t care if they do the job badly because right now there is a lot of demand.

The first two experiences I had in my house were terrifying and everyone on the street confirmed to me that this is the case in Portugal, that they charge what they want and leave everything poorly done.

The companies, which in theory are more responsible, charge a fortune and the waiting times are 2 or 3 months.

  • Salaries

Life in Porto is a little cheaper than in Valencia, but not too much.

The average price of a private medical consultation is 40 euros, the facial treatments that I get in Porto are less than half the price, the gym costs the same as in Valencia, the food also, the Uber/Bolt is quite cheaper than in Spain and public transport is a bit more expensive (especially if you don’t have a monthly pass).

In Spain, the salary that almost everyone receives is 1000 euros per month. In Portugal the average salary is 800 euros.

Since people cannot live on 800 euros a month, the vast majority have 3 jobs to afford to survive.

As soon as I arrived in Porto, I was very shocked that people contacted me on Saturdays and Sundays, even at midnight. People have no life beyond work.

From here we also fall into the fact that there are many people doing dirty tricks and cheating with those extra jobs.

In past posts you saw everything that happened to me with the two people who did the work in the bathroom and what a disaster it was. As they explained to me, these people are doing jobs outside the law and they don’t care if they do it badly, because they work on their own and they believe that there is no way they can be forced to assume responsibility for the damages caused.

Something positive and different with respect to Spain is that in the Finanças portal you can register all your invoices and at the time of making the income statement, either you pay less taxes or you get money back.

  • Justice and corruption

As in all countries, in Portugal there are also organizations that oversee managing consumer claims, the real estate field, energy certifications, etc.

But then there are so many legal loopholes, that in many cases there is no one capable of penalizing those who act illegally.

In my case, for example, after reporting to the Municipal Chamber of Porto all the illegalities that the former owners of the house had committed, they informed us that they did absolutely nothing, no penalty, no fine, nothing. This having the proves in their own systems.

In Spain you do something like that, and you get an impressive fine, and they can even send you to jail.

In other words, knowing how the Municipal Chamber of Porto works, I can calmly do all the illegal works I want in my house, because there is no one who can penalize me.

It all falls under “civil law” and you have to pay a lawyer and go to court to get justice.

I have noticed that people do what they want: illegal renovation works, they put advertising where they want irregularly, they shamelessly sell drugs everywhere, they don’t make invoices.

It is that in fact in the law firm where they are taking the complaint for the scam, they did not give me the invoices and I had to send an email outraged with a copy to everyone so that they had the decency to send them to me.

Seriously, many times I feel that in The Walking Dead there is more organization and professionalism.

  • Real Estate agencies

Regarding the real estate field, even though there are many more rules and regulations than in Spain, most real estate companies do what they want, because there is no one to monitor or verify that the laws are complied with.

Corruption at the real estate level is impressive and real estate agents are like vultures.

Since everyone wants to sell and get their 6% commission, everyone is capable of turning a blind eye to illegalities.

What happened to us with the house is not uncommon in Portugal. They go crazy when they see foreigners who come to buy and do not need a bank loan.

There are also those who make “cheap energy certificates” without even visiting the house.

All this is easy to do in Portugal due to the legal loophole that exists in so many areas and the inability of state agencies to prosecute and penalize.

  • Poverty / Infrastructure

Although most people only see the nice news and blog articles about how wonderful Portugal is to emigrate, the Portuguese are not having a great time.

There are many people who live in a situation of misery and with houses in deplorable conditions. This is something I see every day.

In the very center of Porto, you can perfectly distinguish which houses are for tourist accommodation and which belong to locals, because those of the locals are usually falling apart.

I have also been overwhelmed by the large number of people living on the streets.

Another thing that made a great impression on me is seeing such an excessive number of abandoned houses. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like this in any other city. With the need for rentals that exists, I did not understand how there was no one to invest in those properties.

They explained to me that these abandoned houses generally have debt and since the people who inherit them have no way to pay the debt that the property has, they cannot renovate or sell it either.

In Vila Nova de Gaia it is also a shock to see such several properties abandoned and falling apart.

When we visited the beach area, we understood that it is there where they are investing in building properties for foreigners who have money.

I already told you that many people must have 3 jobs to be able to survive; but it is that even those who are already retired must continue working because with the pension they receive, it is not enough. Many retirees work for Uber/Bolt.

On the other hand, when you leave what is the center of Porto, you find roads that are reminiscent of Latin America. One day we went to Ermesinde by bike to visit Andrea and all the streets were broken and full of holes.

  • Pollution

Although Porto in general seems cleaner than Valencia, there are certain parts that are full of rubbish.

In Portugal you can still see people throwing garbage from cars.

Even when the air in Porto feels much cleaner than in Valencia, the smoke from the cars smells very bad, but like we went to Ecuador. Seriously, something I have not seen in any other country in the European Union.

  • Post office / Internet purchases

Regarding Spain, with shipments and purchases online, I feel in prehistory.

Amazon does not exist in Portugal. Although there is Amazon Spain, there are things that are not shipped to Portugal.

Returns are archaic to me. When in Spain the return label arrives with the package, you take it to any pick up point, they scan the code and you receive the confirmation email; in Portugal you still have to print the label and then waste half an hour at the CTT office signing papers.

With international shipping it’s another crazy thing. You must register on the CTT page and enter all the data so that within a few days they will tell you if they approve it or not and give you the price. It’s something I’ve never seen in my life.

  • Card payments

Another thing that shocked me is that there are many places in Porto that don’t accept international cards.

Seriously, this is something I only saw in a few third world countries. We are in one of the largest cities in Portugal, and there are establishments that do not accept international cards with the absurd number of tourists they receive daily.

The system is so archaic that even to pay for a flight with a Portuguese bank card, the system gives an error and you have to call to be able to pay.

  • Weather

We bought the house in Porto with the intention of having our base to spend the summer months, since the city in summer has a very pleasant weather. But in winter it is a bit horrible.

We moved at the beginning of September, so we spent the whole autumn and winter in Porto. From October to January, it rained non-stop. I am not exaggerating.

Even though it rains a lot and there is excessive humidity, the houses are not prepared for the weather.

They are not insulated for the cold either and this is something that all the people who visit or have emigrated from Nordic countries complain about because in most houses and apartments, it is colder inside than outside.

My house is an example of this because they also did a cheap renovation with lousy qualities.

When we were in Algarve in March 2021 we were freezing to death inside the apartment and the walls of the room were covered in mold.

This is another big problem that you are going to have if you live in Porto (and a large part of Portugal), the humidity is outrageous.

The thermometer in my house marked 99% humidity every day from October to January and the fight with mold is constant.

This winter weather also turns people off a lot, because imagine spending a month or more without being able to leave the house because it rains every day. Of course, as soon as a few rays of sun come out, you see happy people on the street and hanging their clothes outside.

In December when we were telling a friend’s husband everything that had happened to us and that we were depressed, he told us that “We would see things differently when the weather changed, and the sun came out.”

At the end of 2022 it rained a lot and social networks were filled with videos of flooding in Porto and Lisbon. Many people said, “It looks like a third world country”.

The good thing about all this is that the north of Portugal is very green and that is one of the things I love about Porto; there is a lot of vegetation and beautiful mountains; Plus, the air feels clean.

An important change from Valencia to Porto is that you always must take an umbrella and a raincoat.

In short, despite all the problems we had with the house, which has been a nightmare and a great additional job of filing complaints, finding a lawyer, spending extra money, and the great anxiety that this has generated in us, I do not regret having emigrated to Porto.

After everything that has happened to me, in less than 4 months it is already as if I had lived in Portugal for 20 years. I now know what I have to verify if I buy another property in the future, I now know how the laws and bureaucracy work, I know which the organizations are to defend my rights, I have a trusted lawyer, etc. In addition, with the experience that I bring from Spain, I did not waste a minute in acting to denounce and do justice.

I find myself in Porto in a “privileged situation” because we have a salary well above the country’s average and we had money to invest in a house. Also, the tax system that Portugal currently has is very beneficial if your salary comes from a foreign company.

But my situation is not that of most of the Portuguese. The reality of the country is not what you see in blogs or in the news.

Portugal is the perfect country to emigrate if you have money, if you earn a salary from a foreign company, if you bought a micro-loft that you can rent for 3,000 euros a month, etc.

Most of the Portuguese struggle to pay rents that are increasingly expensive thanks to the romanticization of the country at an international level, this news do a lot of damage to the lives of the locals.

People who come from Latin America because of the possibility to get a permanent residence easily, find that they must pay 750 euros per month for a room in a shared apartment.

Although I am doing well in Porto and the change has been for the better compared to Spain, Portugal is far from perfect and, in fact, has many traits of a third world country.

To consider if you want to emigrate to Portugal:

  • The housing situation is unsustainable and although everything is excessively expensive, it is almost impossible to find rentals. The requirements to rent are unfair and it is common that they do not return the money of the deposit.
  • Public health works well even though the access process is a bit more complicated.
  • People are generally nice and polite.
  • On the other hand, there are bad people who live by cheating others, so if you emigrate to Portugal you can’t trust anyone and you have to try to learn and do everything on your own.
  • If you are going to buy a house, you must be very careful because most of the agencies and notaries are corrupt.
  • The houses are poorly insulated for the cold and humidity, so winter is very harsh.
  • The reality of the locals is completely different from what they show you in blogs and news. Emigrating to Portugal only benefits you if you receive a good salary from a foreign company.
  • If you need to do works/renovations in your house, try to do everything yourself as much as possible because you will save money, time, and trouble. If you need to hire someone, opt only for companies since you will have a guarantee, after-sales service and someone who will be responsible if there are problems later.

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