Central Portugal is one of Europe’s sleeping beauties.
Why it gets ignored is puzzling. Hemming a rugged coastline of cliffs, coves, and whitewashed windmills, the Atlantic beaches of the Beira and Estremadura provinces resemble broad golden ribbons. Slumbering inland are historic castle towns, abbeys, and pilgrim shrines. Small villages come surrounded by terraced olive groves, citrus orchards, and vineyards.
Completing the picture are salt lagoons, gurgling rivers, and pine forests. White storks build straggly nests on top of church towers…springy-turf cliff-tops are scented with wild herbs…stone walls trail clouds of blue-mauve morning glory flowers…village houses are draped in wisteria.
Lovely, certainly—but also inexpensive. It’s not uncommon to find seaside apartments listing for less than $150,000, and in simple restaurants, four plump grilled sardines served with garden-fresh salad cost $6.50. Bottles of crisp white wine are even less. A beer often sets you back only $1.20.
Stretching from Figueira da Foz to Peniche, Central Portugal’s beaches form the Costa de Prata: the Silver Coast. It’s a bit of a misnomer as the sands are gold rather than silver. The name comes from the way the mirror-bright light plays upon the ocean.
Silver Coast temperatures aren’t as high as those in the Algarve, Portugal’s southern fringe. Even in July, it hovers around 82° F. Although winters are mild, they can be wet and windy. But the big pay-back is that its seaside towns are less overbuilt, more sensibly priced, and have little in the way of tourist tat. Unlike the Algarve’s mega-resorts, it still feels like “the real Portugal.”
During high season, two-bedroom apartments fetch $400 and more weekly. But if you’re considering “buy-to-let,” it may be difficult to attract visitors (who are mostly Portuguese) outside of late June to August’s time-frame. For the moment, Central Portugal is more suited as a place for permanent residence or a personal vacation home.
Yet much to entice visitors is already in place. You don’t have to look far to find tennis courts, surfing schools, and golf courses. Plus, there’s plenty more to do beyond the beach, particularly if you’re keen on culture, history, and long walks.
Although it’s been a long time coming, the Silver Coast is finally starting to stir the interest of northern European property buyers. A popular British TV program, “Homes in the Sun,” recently focused on this part of Portugal. So, don’t leave it too late. Many of the most enticing bargains may soon get snapped up.
Going from north to south, three main stops to put on your checklist are Figueira da Foz, Nazare, and Peniche. Along with wonderful beaches, all have enticing diversions that lay only a few miles inland.
Figuera da Foz’s elegance may be somewhat faded and you’re unlikely to meet royalty in the town’s casino nowadays. Yet the vast golden beach of Central Portugal’s oldest resort certainly can’t be faulted. Perfect for walkers and cyclists, a long esplanade also arrows past Avenida do Brasil’s new apartment blocks toward the fishing village of Buarcos.
A 45-minute drive eastward, Coimbra is the region’s largest city. Once the capital of Portugal, it’s home to one of Europe’s oldest universities, excellent shopping, and has its own style of fado music. These melancholy “fate” songs of exile and love gone wrong are a Portuguese tradition.
Further north, Aveiro is a quirky town of canals set among the lagoons. Look for the colorful candy-striped wooden fishermen’s houses.
But if its fish you are after, some of Portugal’s tastiest sardines come from Nazare, an authentic fishing village of narrow alleys, old houses, and numerous hole-in-the-wall eateries.
As in centuries gone by, the fish are gutted on the beach and dried on racks. And Nazare’s fishwives still wear the traditional garb of thick socks, bunched skirts, and petticoats.
In the summer it’s a popular resort with its sandy beach lying below the Sitio sanctuary’s cliffs.
Around 10 miles from Nazare, Sao Martinho do Porto is another neat little town that’s starting to attract vacation home buyers. Even on a windy day—and the Atlantic coast can be breezy—it feels sheltered. Tucked inside a cove, its shell-shaped beach and unthreatening waves are perfect for vacationers with young families.
From either resort, the nearest sizeable inland town is Leiria (pronounced Lay-REE-ah). It has a castle-topped old quarter, and is within easy striking distance of the Marian shrine at Fatima and the gorgeous old town of Tomar, founded by the Knights Templar. Don’t miss its doubled walled castle which encloses the Knights’ Convento de Cristo.
Thickets of history await wherever you turn—including the forests. Originally planted to hold back accumulations of sand, Leiria’s surrounding pine forests provided the wood for the ships of Portugal’s famous 15th- and 16th-century Voyages of Discovery.
Enjoy surfing? Conditions are always ideal somewhere around Peniche’s peninsula. A geographical oddity, the peninsula was actually an island until late medieval times—shifting sands gradually joined it to the mainland.
One of Portugal’s largest ports, Peniche is a part modern, part historic town with a thriving fishing industry as well as some enviable beaches. With sands colored palest beige, beaches include Supertubos, Baleal, Consolocao, Cova da Alfarroba, Gamboa, and Sao Bernardino. Peniche’s best fish restaurants are near the harbor wall, overlooked by a star-shaped fortress. Completed in 1645, it has a checkered past: It has housed Boers fleeing from South Africa in the early 20thcentury, German prisoners during the First World War, and political prisoners under the dictator Salazar. After Portugal’s bloodless revolution of 1974, the fortress provided accommodation for families driven out of the former colonies. It is now a museum.
An hour out to sea, another old military fort crowns the largest of the Berlenga Islands. Nobody lives on the islands, but boats visit during summer. They form a natural reserve for seabirds, flowers, and marine life.
A 30-minute-drive from Peniche, Obidos is another magnet for history lovers. This walled medieval village is perfectly preserved, due to its heritage of being a wedding gift from Portugal’s kings to their queens since the 13th century.
Need to know
All calculations are based on a rate of €1 equals $1.36.
Along with property purchase price, other expenses need to be taken into account. Legal fees, documentation, and stamp duty amount to just under 2%. Along with that, there’s Property Transfer Tax. Rates vary from 0% to 8%, but it’s not straightforward, as permanent residents can claim substantial tax relief.
A couple of examples: On properties up to €85,500, permanent residents pay 0% Property Transfer Tax. Vacation home buyers pay 1%.
On a home purchased for €150,000 ($204,000), Property Transfer Tax is 5% (€7,500), but permanent residents can deduct €5,226. This brings the amount due down to €2,274.
Exceptions to the usual rates include building plots or land to build an urban dwelling. Here the Property Transfer Tax is 6.5%.
The cost of property:
In Figuera da Foz
Within a 20-minute walk of the esplanade, www.habitatglobal.com have a recently built apartment of 860 square feet for $123,500. No ocean lookouts, but in Figueira’s central parishes of Sao Juliao and Tavarede, many apartments are around the $130 per square foot mark.
If sea views are important, the main areas are along Avenida 25 do April, Avenida do Brasil, and also around Buarcos village. Here rates are more like $200 per square foot and up. In one Buarcos development, a 1,160-square-foot apartment with sea views and a communal pool is $253,000.
In Nazare
For first-line beach apartments, it’s difficult to find anything for less than $130,000. Through www.imatico.com, a one-bedroom apartment with 500 square feet of living space is $170,000. But lots of new apartments have sprouted in recent years. Within five minutes of the beach, similarly sized units in a year-old building start at $118,000.
Nazare agents Imatico also have apartamentos turisticos with fantastic views over Sao Martinho do Porto’s bay 10 miles away from Nazare. The complex has its own reception, gym, indoor swimming pool, and café/restaurant. One-bedroom apartments (420 to 580 square feet) are from $144,000 to $190,000. Two-bedroom apartments (620 to 750 square feet) range between $226,000 and $238,000.
In Peniche
Based in the old quarter, www.rico-mobiliaria.net has properties both in Peniche and the surrounding villages, where small houses to modernize start at $68,000. Within Peniche town, modern apartments (840 square feet) start at $103,000. The old quarter has more character, and here a 117-square-foot apartment is $99,000. On the outskirts, a three-bedroom apartment (1,200 square feet) with a garage and sea view is $156,000.
Plots and building costs
Buying a plot of land and building a two-bedroom house with a view on the clifftop road between Nazare and Sao Martinho do Porto would cost around $340,000. Of course, much depends where a plot is located. As anywhere, the more stunning the lookout, the higher the price.
Near Obidos, Era Imobiliaria lists a 5,880-square-foot plot with planning approval for $90,000. In Peniche’s rural hinterland, Rico Imobiliaria have 20,000-plus square foot plots with planning permission starting at $61,000. A 48,400-square-foot lot at Olho Marinho is $102,000.
Depending on quality and finishing, building costs fall into the $68 to $205-per-square-foot range.
Financing
Mortgages are available to nonresidents. Millenium bcp, one of Portugal’s largest banks, offers a Eurocasa mortgage to buy or build a house for vacations or to let. You have up to 30 years to pay off the debt, but your age cannot exceed 75 at the end of the repayment period.
Collateral required is the first mortgage on the property. The maximum amount of the loan is the lesser of the following: 100% of the estimate or construction price, or 70% of the valuation, with a minimum of €50,000. See: www.milleniumbcp.pt.
Annual costs
Local property taxes are approximately 0.3% of valuation. For example, on a $200,000 apartment you’ll pay around $750 annually. Garbage collection and TV tax is paid with water bills and total around $30 monthly. Electricity for normal family usage is $50 to $80 monthly, depending on the season. If you use bottled gas, a 13 kg. gas cylinder for a stove costs $25 and lasts roughly five weeks. Cable TV is around $48.
Mosaics and azulejos
Almost every town center has walkways patterned in distinctive black-and-white mosaics. The facades of many houses, shops, and railway stations are another eye-catcher. Many come adorned with azulejo tiles that tell picturebook stories of bygone days—a blue-and-white depiction of harvesting, fishing, past battles, and sometimes even miracles.
Where to lay your head
In Figueira da Foz: Hotel Mercure; website: www.accor.com.
In Obidos: Estalagem do Convento (The Convent Inn); website: www.estalagemdoconvento.com.
In Leiria: Hotel Dom Joao III; website: www.hoteldjoao.com.
The local fare
There’s more to eat than sardines. Along the coast, there are some wonderful Sopas de Marisco (shellfish soups) and Caldeirada fish stews. Arroz de Marisco is shellfish rice; Feijoada de Chocos is a cuttlefish and bean chowder; Tiborna is baked cod that’s usually served with small potatoes, salted and cooked in their skins, then garnished with olive oil and garlic.
Meat-eaters will find steaks, but there are all kinds of pork, lamb, goat, and rabbit dishes too. Often a specialty of rural restaurants, Leitoa is roast sucking pig. Tasty sausages always form part of a Cozida a Portuguesa—a selection of cooked meats. Finish off with a Queijada (sweet cheese tart) and a Ginginha cherry brandy. Most towns have specialty sweet treats, originally produced in convents. For example, Leiria’s are brisas: small, round tarts made from eggs, sugar, and almonds.