The Portugal buyers forgot

Alentejo can offer diverse landscapes and villas a fraction of the cost of the Algarve
Zoe Dare Hall

WHEN Jane and Paul Hutchinson wanted to move from Spain’s Costa del Sol to Portugal, they almost overlooked the Alentejo region in the south where they now live. ‘We knew we loved Portugal, but ruled out the Algarve because it was too developed and the Silver Coast around Lisbon because it was too far north,’ says Jane, 52, a retired hairdresser from Winsford, Cheshire.

‘We came across this region last year through the Alentejo Home website, and as soon as we drove there, we were impressed,’ she says.

Alentejo is a wine- producing region that covers a third of Portugal, with a 100- mile Atlantic coastline of wild, white sand beaches that stretch between the Algarve and Lisbon.
The Alentejo has so far escaped most holiday home buyers’ radars, but when the region’s first airport opens in Beja in 2009, that could change.

The Alentejo has so far escaped most holiday home buyers’ radars, but when the region’s first airport opens in Beja in 2009, that could change.
‘We’ll be 20 minutes away, although now it’s an hour’s drive to Faro,’ says Jane who lives with husband Paul, 52, now retired from the Navy, in their tenyear- old, single- storey house in Fortes Velhas which cost £127,000.

‘It’s wonderful to have this sense of space and know that no one can build near you as properties here come with so much land,’ she says.
‘What we love about this area is that the days are hot, but the nights are cool so you can sleep. There are small English communities in Beja and nearby Ferreira de Alentejo, but the place has the unspoilt feel of Spain more than 40 years ago.’

Alentejo’s diverse landscapes of open plains in the north, mountains near the Spanish border, and Atlantic coast beaches – and a population of just 800,000 in a region the size of Holland – offers holiday home hunters a rural escape, but not total isolation, with a wide range of affordable properties including cheap ruins to renovate.

‘Most buyers want to be within 20 minutes of the coast, so the nearer the Spanish border, the cheaper the property. For £20,000, you can buy a typical one- storey old farmhouse with a few acres,’ says Bert Snijder of Alentejo Home, one of the region’s few English-speaking agencies.
‘But be prepared inland for boiling summers and very cold winters – and unlike the Algarve, English isn’t widely spoken.’

With Faro or Lisbon airports a twohour drive away, property prices in Vila Nova in the Odemira district, where footballer Luis Figo owns a home, remain relatively low, with one- bedroom apartments from around £70,000, although this will change when the new airport opens.

Alentejo Home has a four- bedroom villa 18km from Vila Nova in Castelao for £ 90,000 or a singlestorey, 120sq m house in Longueira, five minutes from the beach, for £93,000.
New villas with sizeable plots are a fraction of the cost of equivalent properties in the Algarve, with fivebedroom villas with pools in the Setubal district near Lisbon for £327,000, or rural three-bedroom renovated houses with land for £135,000.

Property specialist Square Metres has a ruined village house near the medieval town of Estremoz for £6,700.
‘That’s exceptionally low, but for £20,000 you can find a good supply of houses which aren’t ruins but need renovation, particularly in the north of Alentejo,’ says Square Metres’ Annie Seabrook. ‘The Portuguese think we’re mad, but this is exactly what British buyers are looking for.’