Debra F. Says:
Can a single person live in Portugal for $1,600 a month, all inclusive?
IL Contributor in Portugal Terry Coles Says:
Hi Debra,
The short answer to your question is yes, I do think that a single can live in Portugal for $1,600, which at the current exchange rate is around €1,485, depending on your lifestyle.
Your largest expense will be rent, unless you plan to purchase a property outright. Depending on where you choose to live, rent prices vary. Lisbon, Cascais, Porto, and the Algarve are the higher-priced areas.
Check out the mid-sized city of Caldas da Rainha, one hour north of Lisbon, which should have some affordable housing options.
To give you an idea of what you can expect to pay for rent, I suggest searching on the property website idealista.com. You can change the filters to location, number of bedrooms, city center, etc…
Here you will see terms like T1, T2—the T stands for apartment and the number indicates how many bedrooms. If the T is replaced with a V, it’s a freestanding house.
You would probably want to live in a small community so there is no need for you to have a car, as gasoline is expensive—currently as much as $7.75 a gallon.
As part of the resident visa for Portugal, you would need to carry private health insurance, which will add to your budget. Depending on your age and health condition, the prices of insurance will vary. But you will also have access to the public healthcare system to use if necessary, which will help keep your medical costs down.
You can find more information about the cost of living in Portugal in Chapter 6 of the Escape to Portugal guidebook—available on the IL Bookstore here.
Got a Question?
Send your thoughts to mailbag@internationalliving.com. We’ll post and respond to as many of your emails as we can right here in the e-letter.