We have been working on becoming Portuguese residents for some time now, as we have started a process to leave Mexico. Becoming Portuguese offers me full-time residency in Europe, so I can come and go as I please. Portugal also comes with some nice fiscal benefits. One part of the residency process involves having a home in the country so we bought an apartment in Lisbon. It was completely gutted when we saw it, which allowed us to design the layout ourselves and put in everything new. It was a fun experience and the contractors were great. They came in on budget and finished ahead of schedule.
It is not big with only 50 m2, but we managed to make pretty good use of the space we have. It is 1/7th the size of our apartment back in Punta Mita, so a big change! But it has a great location, beside Alfama and short walk into downtown Lisbon. The Apolonia train station and metro is steps away and its very easy getting to and from the airport.
We moved in a few weeks ago and spent about a week buying all the things a new apartment needs.
Update: We’ve moved on and passed this apartment on to our daughter. We found a larger unit with parking, lift and a large terrace on this hillside overlooking Lisbon.