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- Dave Alastair moved from Reno, Nevada, to a rural province 45 minutes north of Lisbon, Portugal, in 2022.
- He bought a three-bedroom house with a pool for $300,000 and says he appreciates his new laidback lifestyle.
- “I think the biggest difference is that in the United States, people are in this kind of survival mode,” he said.
For Dave Alastair, an American man who had been living in Nevada, moving to a rural province 45 minutes north of Lisbon, Portugal, wasn’t exactly a planned decision.
Alastair, now 32, lost his job in the aviation industry when the pandemic hit. While he was out of a job, he started his own videography company, which eventually got him into making travel videos.
“Once Europe opened, I decided to come to check out Portugal. Pretty much it had been on my list of places to visit for a while,” Alastair told Insider.
Dave in Portugal
But he ended up falling in love with the country — the sights, the lifestyle, the culture — and he decided to move there permanently.
“I came here to visit, just to see the country, and then once I saw it, it seemed like a good fit,” Alastair said.
House-hunting in Portugal wasn’t that difficult either, since he already knew what he had in mind.
“Basically I was looking for a location that was a little more rural, and I wanted something that was big enough for me to be able to play music and have a studio inside for my YouTube stuff and for an office in general,” Alastair said.
He found the perfect quaint three-bedroom home in the countryside after looking at real-estate listings online.
Dave in Portugal
“I had come here to visit for months and scouted areas that I wanted to be in,” Alastair said. “I had been here a total of about three months before I purchased the house. I had been in the south and in Algoz, but it wasn’t for me.”
After scouring online platforms, Alastair chanced upon a local real estate agency with a few homes for sale in the area he was looking at.
“They had a bunch of listings within about a 15 or 30-mile radius, and that’s how I basically found this home,” Alastair said.
Alastair ended up buying the property in April 2022 for 280,000 euros, or $300,000.
Dave in Portugal
He moved into his new home in July 2022.
“The bones of this house are probably in the range of about 150 years old or 200 years old,” Alastair said.
The building was converted into a home in 2007 by a woman from Lisbon, but it was originally part of a wine vineyard.
“This was a wine warehouse, basically off to the side there’s a lagar, which is basically a wine mashing station where you would mash the wine,” he added. “My neighbors within a mile have tons of wine vineyards, so I’m guessing this was all wine country back then.”
Insider was not able to independently verify the history of the building, but the Lisboa region is known for its wine production.
The single-story home has a bright and airy layout. The rustic interior design features exposed bricks, wooden beams, and patterned tiles.
Dave in Portugal
The house measures just under 3,000 square feet. Alastair designed his home with help from his partner Sara.
The front room is where Alastair stores his surfing and biking equipment. It also has a little sauna where he relaxes after a long day.
In the open-concept living and dining area, there’s a loft that Alastair uses as his office. Apart from his kitchen and bedroom, there’s a guest room and a garage.
Outside, he grows vegetables and herbs in the garden, including tomatoes, peppers, and kale.
“The soil is very fertile in Portugal, and many things grow here. My goal is to continue to scale the garden to be able to live as much as possible off of this property,” he said. “This was a big goal of mine in finding a rural property in Portugal.”
One of the first things Alastair did once he moved in was install glass doors to open up the space and bring light into the house.
Dave in Portugal
That also meant that he was able to see out to the pool area from the living and dining area.
Since the building was old, another major task that Alastair had was to protect the roof from termites and water damage.
“I wasn’t sure if there were bugs in the roof. I wasn’t sure if there was any water damage,” he said. “So I primed the ceiling with an antifungal to make sure that everything was treated, and I knew that it was also kind of an anti-moisture primer paint that would make sure that everything was sealed.”
Portugal has a relatively humid climate, and people should look out for mold when buying a home here, he said.
The average daily humidity in Portugal can go up to over 80%. In contrast, the average monthly humidity in Reno ranges between 36% to 68%.
A few ways to control mold indoors include venting bathrooms to the outside, as well as adding insulation to walls to reduce the likelihood of condensation.
“In this house, it’s just very lucky the way that it was built and as old as it is that it controls the humidity as well as it does,” Alastair said.
Even though Alastair has lived in the house for over a year, he still has some renovations planned for the future.
Dave in Portugal
This includes installing solar panels on the roof and then switching over to a solar water heating system. He also plans on installing a battery so that the property can be fully independent from the power grid.
“Portugal is such a sunny part of Europe, and they say we get over 300 days of sunshine a year on average,” he said. “So it would be an incredible opportunity to get the power from the sun to power the entire house, and be completely self-sustainable as far as the energy goes.”
The house doesn’t require any air conditioning or heating for the most part, thanks to the thick stone walls that help regulate the interior temperatures, Alastair said.
“The walls are really thick — I would say about two and a half feet thick. So it insulates pretty well for how big the stone house is,” he added.
Buying property in Portugal as a foreigner can be challenging because of the legalities of the process, he said.
Dave in Portugal
“I think the most important thing is having a really good lawyer by your side,” Alastair said. “Here in Portugal, they don’t have brokerages like they do in the United States that check all of the legalities and make sure that your real-estate agent is following all of the real estate laws.”
He said the best thing to do is hire a lawyer to check the property and the paperwork for you. This includes checking for any liens on the property and ensuring that the property lines are correctly marked.
“And in my case, I had a pool, and it’s very important to make sure that the pool is legal and has been approved by the city as well,” he said.
To seek residence in Portugal, foreigners can apply for a D7 visa. To buy property in the country, foreigners also need to apply for a taxpayer identification number, or a NIF number, before they can enter a contract.
Alastair says that while his cost of living is lower than it was in the US, it’s only because he lives in an older house on the outskirts of Portugal.
Dave in Portugal
“One thing about owning an older house in Portugal is my house taxes are significantly lower here because it’s from the time that the house was registered with the local municipality,” he said. “So my house taxes are only a couple hundred euros a year, versus a house that would be newer, which would be a couple of thousand.”
In contrast, he estimates he was paying almost $1,700 a month to live in a studio apartment in Reno, Nevada.
“But now if you live in Lisbon, I’d say things would be pretty on par. The rental levels and cost of living now in Lisbon don’t really make that huge of a difference, to be honest,” he added.
But the biggest difference by far in terms of cost between both countries is his healthcare insurance.
“My healthcare is the biggest difference, in Portugal I pay around 80 euros for a premium insurance versus in the United States for not the best one, I was paying around $500 monthly,” he said.
He has been documenting his experience moving to and living in Portugal on his YouTube channel.
Dave in Portugal
Alastair started his YouTube channel when he was still in the US. Back then, it was a place for him to share about his travels.
But when he updated his channel with the news about his move to Europe, he noticed that there was interest in the topic.
Eventually, he started filming more videos about his life there and about Portuguese culture to give others a real idea of what it’s like to live in the European country.
“A lot of the times when you haven’t been to a place, you get these romantic notions of what you think it’s going to be like, and I think especially southern Europe can be a little bit difficult for Americans,” he said.
“I think that the slow pace of life, the bureaucracy that’s here can be different from the expectations they previously had, and I think it’s important that they come in with a realistic attitude and expectations of what they’re really going to be experiencing when they come here,” he added.
The most important thing Alastair learned about moving to a new country is to have an open mind.
Dave in Portugal
It’s crucial to integrate into the new culture to feel what’s happening in the country and to develop a sense of belonging, he said.
“I think that if you come to a country and you want it to be the America that you came from, where you’re just trying to meet immigrants from the United States and living in a bubble, then I think that you’ll be disappointed and unhappy with the lifestyle,” he added.
One of the best parts about living in Portugal is that he’s learned to slow down and enjoy life and the company of the people around him, he said.
Dave in Portugal
“I think the biggest difference is that in the United States, people are in this kind of survival mode,” Alastair said. “They have this kind of live-to-work mentality where everything is about your job, it’s about your independence, the corporate ladder, and improving the self.”
But in contrast, life in Portugal is centered around the community, he said. It’s common to see families and friends make time to get together every week.
“At this moment I see myself staying in Portugal long-term and do not have any plans to move back to the United States,” he added. “Not to say I won’t return in the future but right now the lifestyle just doesn’t align with what I am currently looking for.”
If you’ve moved to a different country and would like to share insights from your experience, please contact Amanda Goh at agoh@insider.com.
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