When my husband Çağdaş and I decided to move Portugal from Turkey, finding a home was obviously one of the biggest things on our list. The difficult part was that we needed to find it while we were still living in Turkey. Before we started searching, we had already decided that we wanted to live in Setúbal. We weren’t looking all over Portugal or comparing ten different cities. We wanted somewhere smaller and calmer, close to the ocean, but still practical for everyday life.
Setúbal felt right for us, so that was where we focused our search.
Then we opened Idealista and started contacting listings. And that’s when we discovered that finding an apartment and getting someone to answer you are two different things.
Sometimes, getting a reply is the hardest part
We searched for around two weeks and contacted different listings. Some people didn’t reply at all. With others, the conversation didn’t really go anywhere. This was difficult because we were trying to organise everything from Turkey. We couldn’t simply call an agent and say, “We’ll come and see the apartment this afternoon.”
Then we contacted the real estate agent who eventually helped us rent our home.
He replied almost immediately. Honestly, after struggling to get responses from other listings, even that felt like progress.
We explained our situation: we were living in Turkey, preparing to move to Portugal and needed to arrange our home before arriving He sent us photographs of the apartment, we spoke about the details and things moved quite quickly
after that. We also spoke with the landlord by phone. A short time later, the contract was ready. And that was it.
We had rented our first home in Portugal without ever seeing it in person.
Actually, it was the only apartment we seriously considered. Looking back, it sounds slightly crazy. At the time, we were just relieved to have found a home.
Then came the paperworkd
The next surprise was how much financial information could be required. As foreigners renting from outside Portugal, we had to show that we were financially able to pay the rent We were asked for documents including our NIF numbers, bank information, proof of income, tax information and documents showing the income we had in Turkey.
I can understand this from the landlord’s side. We were people he had never met, living in another country and asking to rent his property. We didn’t have a Portuguese employment history or a guarantor in Portugal. So naturally, he wanted some security. But I wasn’t prepared for exactly how much security that could mean.
6,000 euros before arriving in Portugal
For our apartment, we paid two months’ rent in advance and another two months as a deposit. Because we didn’t have a guarantor in Portugal, we were also asked to pay the equivalent of another two months. That meant 6,000 euros upfront. Before we’d even arrived in Portugal.
This was probably the part of the process that surprised me most.
Again, I could understand the landlord’s position. We were foreign tenants arriving from another country without a local guarantor. But understanding it doesn’t make 6,000 euros feel like a small amount of money. We accepted the conditions and made the payment. Thankfully, in our case, everything worked out exactly as we hoped.
Would I rent a home remotely again?
Probably, if I really had to. But if I had another option, I would prefer to see the property myself first. Renting a home from another country requires a lot of trust. You’re looking at photographs on your phone and trying to imagine not just the apartment, but your actual life there.
What does the street feel like?
Is it noisy?
What is the neighbourhood really like?
Does the apartment look the same as it does in the photos?
You don’t really know until you arrive. We were lucky. When we finally came to Portugal and opened the door, the apartment was what we expected. We liked the house, we liked the area and we settled in very quickly. We still live in the same apartment today and we’re very happy here. We also have a very good relationship with our landlord. We’ve had no problems with each other, and we’re planning to stay for a while.
Maybe we’ll leave one day if we decide to buy our own home in Portugal.
But for now, this is our home.
Lessons learned
What would I tell someone moving to Portugal?
The first thing is to decide where you actually want to live:
I think this is more important than immediately opening property websites and looking at hundreds of apartments. Portugal isn’t a huge country, but the lifestyle can be very different depending on where you choose to live. Lisbon, Porto, Setúbal, the Algarve or a smaller town won’t give you the same daily life. We knew we wanted Setúbal, and that made our search much easier to manage.
The second thing I would say is: start earlier than you think you need to:
An online listing doesn’t mean you’ll receive an immediate answer.
Sometimes you’ll wait.
Sometimes you’ll send another message.
And sometimes nobody will answer at all.
If your moving date is getting closer while you’re still trying to find somewhere to live, that can become stressful very quickly.
Finally, have your documents and finances ready.
If you’re arriving from another country without a Portuguese guarantor or local employment history, be prepared for landlords or agents to ask for detailed financial information. The exact requirements will depend on the landlord and the contract, so our experience shouldn’t be taken as a rule for every rental in Portugal. And be prepared for the possibility of a significant upfront payment.
Would I have preferred to walk around Setúbal, visit several apartments and choose our favourite? Of course. Instead, we chose one from photographs while sitting in Turkey, transferred 6,000 euros and hoped we’d made the right decision. It was definitely a risk. But in our case, it worked. The apartment we had never seen became the first home of our new life in Portugal.
And we’re still very happy we chose it.
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Read more about Portugal here in Dispatches’s archives.
Ipek Ulukan is a Turkish content creator and writer living in Setúbal, Portugal, with her husband, Çağdaş. Together, they created Kampastik, documenting their life and travels in Portugal. İpek also works as a visa and relocation consultant, helping people navigate their move to Portugal. She is also a singer and loves travelling and discovering new places.
