I Didn't Come For The Weather

A morning in the Setúbal countryside.

Here's something not many people say about Portugal: 

"I didn't come for the weather."

I'm from Johannesburg, South Africa. 

Johannesburg has the best weather in the world: 300 days of sunshine, green summers, spectacular storms that actually mean something. 

When people hear I moved to Portugal and say "oh, the weather must be amazing," I smile politely. I know what amazing weather is.

So Why Portugal? 

That's the more interesting question.
I grew up with what many South Africans call a "Plan B." Not a career plan, an exit plan. My father is Zimbabwean. My ancestors arrived in Southern Africa in the 1800s. I had no second passport, no other citizenship waiting in the family history. Just the instinct, and no door to open.

Then we heard about Portugal's Golden Visa (this was back in 2015). Invest in property, qualify for residency, eventually citizenship AND crucially, you didn't even have to live here. Clean, practical, no disruption. 

The perfect Plan B.

Portugal had other plans.

We came to scout investment properties. We left having fallen completely in love with a country we hadn't expected to feel anything for. And the thing that got us — the thing I still find hard to explain to Europeans — is that Portugal feels African.

Not in an obvious way. But in the way that matters. The streets are imperfect. Things are a bit messy.

And yet somehow, remarkably, it works, and keeps working, and seems to be working more and more. Anyone who loves South Africa but watches it with a slowly breaking heart will know exactly what I mean when I say that. Portugal is trending in the opposite direction. That means something.

There's a camaraderie here too. Strangers bonding over taxes, bureaucracy, the particular national sport of sighing heavily about the government. That's not a European thing. That's an African thing. I recognised it immediately.

It feels like home here. Only kinder. 

It's Africa with real coffee.

A bica and a sagres. Some of the "everything else".

That's why I write this blog. Not to sell Portugal - it sells itself, often badly.

But to help the next person making this decision avoid the mistakes I made, and notice the things I almost missed.

Hi, I'm Moira. I'm a South African living in Sesimbra with my husband and two dogs. 

I first invested in Portuguese property through the Golden Visa in 2017, moved here in 2020, and have since bought six properties and sold three - across long-term rentals, Airbnb, and the occasional adventure. Portugal Horizon is where I write about everything I've learned along the way.

Pavilhão Chinês