A Place in the Sun

Tobi Hughes·
Madeira News

A new series of a place in the sun has started, and Next Tuesday 9th May at 4pm, the episode is in Madeira.

Emma and Shane dream of owning a holiday home on Madeira for them, Emma’s two daughters and their dog Callie to enjoy. Can Ben Hillman deliver the perfect place for their budget of £200k?

 

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Tobi Hughes

13 Responses

    1. Absolutely.. prices in Funchal are mental and it seems the valuation process is; think of a number and then double it!

  2. Thanks Tobi for that info .Visited beautiful Maderia for first time ,last year. Fell in love with the Island .Magical .

  3. I personally think property is being overvalued in madeira it will be hell when the bubble bursts.

  5. It is over the place even were I live in Sintra centre there is a complete lack of properties in the market and the existent ones are over price only available for foreigners and the local people complete out of the market . The other thing that is happening because of this shortage of houses many old houses and others that been following apart been done up and restored that is the only thing good that came out of this situation.

  6. It’s not all holiday homes and retired pensioners.

    Working practices have now changed thanks to technological advances and with COVID giving a major push forwards. It’s now easier and more readily acceptable to work remotely, so many young families are grabbing the opportunity to find a better place to live. Madeira is near perfect. It has the ideal climate, is (relatively) safe, filled with naturally friendly people (apart from some retired ex-pats who think they are only ones who should be there), zero or negligible timezone differences, plentiful flights to most of Europe, fast communications, and a low general cost of living which means that anyone with an ‘off island income’ can live like kings and queens. Add in NHR and quite simply, why wouldn’t you resettle here.

    Sadly, this does mean that demand for ‘nice’ houses in the ‘nicer’ parts of the island is going crazy, and this is unlikely to change much, even if there is a bit of boom right now.

    The government seem very keen for all of this, so clearly the locals will suffer in respect of climbing property values against stagnated incomes, but on the flipside, newcomers are throwing money around like confetti as they settle down, renovate their new houses and get into Madeiran life.

    The next step will for someone to open a really good international school (I know there are already some), on a par with the best in mainland Europe and the floodgates will really open. For us, that is the main limiting factor right now and has prevented us from moving to the island full time.

    Sadly, you can’t have it all ways. Madeira has always been an island paradise, but without any notable exports or established tech’ services, it’s not going to develop and stand on its own two feet without overseas investment. If you go back far enough, you may even find it was a completely uninhabited island until the Europeans rocked up and placed their flag on it.

    1. A refreshing and highly accurate and logical assessment of life in Madeira, the schools, tax situation, work situation, the great locals and the reasoning behind the up-trending and future demand. Its also quite funny reading about some of the laughably moody expats, especially those who think they should be the only ones living here!
      The world has a digital path that has allowed you-tubers to show Madeira to the world in an enjoyable and realistic light, this bought many remote workers here along with their higher salaries and the low tax options for them to stay 10 years. Madeira now needs to grow and have a bigger IT sector and create bigger opportunities for the locals to earn more and have better paid careers.
      The only thing which I would add is about school education, Portuguese is the language here and Madeira´s secondary schools are great, my wife has some African students in her lessons who cant yet speak Portuguese, just English, however this is the way to learn Portuguese, get 100% immersed, its easier for teenagers this way.
      Madeira life works better in Portuguese.

  7. I have just spent a year buying and renovating a house in Ponta do Sol, and recorded every single detail in a 72,000 word book ” A Bridge to the Sun”. It’s an amusing educational and cultural manual on the pitfalls, burocratic pains and creative pleasures of restoring an old traditional stone house into two modern apartments. It will be published on Amazon, but Madeiran News blog readers can get a free copy by contacting Tobi.

    2. Roger Coghill
      Very brave dealing with builders and building work in a house in Portugal I hope that everything did end up well and done well .

    3. I’m a Chartered builder looking to relocate to the island.
      I would find that read fascinating.

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