Why Americans Are Leaving Portugal

Thousands of Americans moved to Portugal in the last three years, lured by the coastal nation’s cheap real estate, tax advantages, and relaxed lifestyle. But now, the honeymoon period is over. Bloomberg's Alice Kantor explains more.

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[emmahardwick]

wow people are shocked over rising house prices when it's the exact same people like them who caused the increase in price? not to mention making Lisbon practically unlivable for the locals

[farshimelt]

If enough foreigners leave, the rents will drop and the rest of us who want to live in Portugal will move there, then the cycle will begin again.

[Mudi]

It's kinda interesting to hear that Americans complained about Portugal's public transit... Public transit is almos inexistent in the US outside the biggest cities, and even then it's not good..

[realhawaiio]

Finally!!!
I might return to Portugal if the foreigners go back.
And also... Problem with doctors in Portugal? Lady, you're from the US where doctors will charge you the price of a new house for some surgery.

[gundisaluusmenendiz]

What's with the term "Expats"? you mean "Immigrants", why is anyone who migrates to the UK or US they're called "Immigrants" but if any US or UK citizens move to another country, why are they called "Expats"???

[billify]

I'm a retired USA citizen of Portuguese descent that moved to Portugal 2 years ago. The Golden Visa program was designed to pump more money into the Portuguese economy but greedy real estate investors (largely from the US) only drove prices so high, the government ended the program. To be fair, Portugal also made a crapload of money. They have also stopped issuing permits for temporary rentals, (AIR BnB's) in Lisbon and Porto, in an attempt to get prices down for the Portuguese citizens.

[philipponte]

The real problem probably is Americans don’t speak Portuguese and expect everyone to speak English, not knowing the countries history and not respecting the culture. I’m probably also a little wrong, but I betcha I’m 💯 right!lol I’m Portuguese American. When my parents immigrated here in the 60’s they knew some US history, they respected the culture and they blended in the best they could. They also worked their ass off learning English. If you’re not coming to Portugal with the same mindset, don’t even bother thinking about going there. Stay in America

[PedroCoelhoPessoal]

What surprises me the most are US citizens going live in Portugal hopping to have free healthcare for their long term illness and complain if they don't get it as they wished

[Lusandro]

Americans also moved there thinking Portugal=Spain. Portuguese culture and history are non-existent in US schools, but Spanish and Mexican culture are widely relied upon to explain how Europe got to the Americas. Americans conflate Mexican and Spanish culture together. Therefore, Americans assure themselves that they are experts on all things Spanish and Mexican and they expect to find chips and salsa, quesadillas, and margaritas in abundance when they move to Portugal. It must be a huge let down to find out that speaking Spanish to the Portuguese is actually offensive.

[FSilva-iqkq]

If Americans leave Portugal only for golden visa, thank god, because they were not able to understand the value that Portugal can give them. Portugal don't need to adapt to the American mentality, Americans need to adapt to Portugal soul, if they can't, they should leave. Not because I am anti imigrants, just because you should only leave where you feel happy.

[rwmorey]

The government ended the golden visa so yeah, duh, of course there's less interest in it. But they failed to mention there are other visas available, aside from a dopey digital nomad visa. The visa that by far most people who aren't euro citizens, enter Portugal with, is the D7, which allows virtually anyone to migrate there. The golden visa is for people who invest half a million and up, which is obviously not most people. It's like the reporter spoke to one person, and decided to publish something without any research and then make it sound like without the golden visa, there's no way to move to Portugal.

[bernardofabrica]

Please go, and the leave the keys behind.
We always prefered the immigrants that aren't afraid to be called such.

[cristinaguine]

Portugal is getting INSANE!!! VERY EXPENSIVE, too much bureaucracy and dirt everywhere!

[melomedicvids]

im sorry but limited public transit ? compared to what ? The united states?

[DTM]

My high school girlfriend had Portuguese heritage. A beautiful girl, beyond words beautiful.

[TagusMan]

Good. Americans move to Portugal 🇵🇹 because it's cheap and then cry whem the very axt of moving there makes everything more expensive.

And they're bringing American wokeism with them which they'll leave behind to destroy the unique balance of social liberalism and conservative traditionalism that makes modern Portuguese 🇵🇹 culture so attractive.

[jondeanpt]

Only Americans couldn’t live in Portugal because it requires a little patience. Lol

[DCD]

Besides citizens of 4rth world countries, who the heck would want to live here?

We are Portuguese and we are leaving

Portugal is great for vacation, thats it

[binalcensored]

Since times before the Celts that people from allover Europe came to live in Portugal, like the Romans, Germanics peoples from all over Germany, people from England, Italy, France, even Arabs lived from some time. The Portuguese never stress with the arrival of foreigners, in the end the bad ones always go and just the good ones stay!

[marcuspedrosa]

Belo Horizonte in the state of Minas Gerais has the best doctors for eye surgery. I even heard complaints about doctors in Portugal not paying due attention to patients' problems.