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United Kingdom
Britain and Portugal share the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world still in force, signed in 1373. The British built Porto's wine trade and shaped Madeira's, and today they remain one of Portugal's largest foreign communities and its highest-spending buyers. Since Brexit, the route in has changed, and the planning matters more than ever.
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The Connection
The oldest alliance in the world.
The Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373, confirmed by the Treaty of Windsor in 1386, is the oldest alliance in the world still in force. It has been invoked across six centuries, from the Peninsular War, when Wellington's Lines of Torres Vedras held the French north of Lisbon, to the Second World War, when Portugal allowed the Allies the use of the Azores. In 1662 Catherine of Braganza married Charles II and is credited with making tea fashionable at the English court.
Trade made the alliance personal. After the Methuen Treaty of 1703, British merchants built the port wine trade in Porto, and many of the great port houses still carry British family names. In Madeira, British families shaped the island's wine trade and its grand hotels. For many British buyers, Portugal is not a foreign country so much as an old friend.
1373
The Anglo-Portuguese alliance, the oldest in the world still in force
47,726
British citizens resident in Portugal at the end of 2025
€512k
Average price paid by British buyers in 2025, the highest of any nationality
3rd
Largest nationality among Golden Visa investors in 2025
The UK and Portugal Today
Still the buyers who pay the most.
At the end of 2025, 47,726 British citizens were resident in Portugal, according to the migration agency AIMA, one of the largest European communities in the country. British buyers also paid the highest average price of any nationality in 2025: around €512,600 per home, according to the statistics institute INE, against about €234,100 for buyers resident in Portugal. And in the Golden Visa program, British nationals were the third-largest group of investors last year.
Access has never been easier. Direct flights connect London and most regional UK airports with Faro, Lisbon, Porto, and Madeira, in about two and a half hours, on the same time zone as the UK. The reasons the British give have not changed in decades: the climate, the coast, golf, safety, English widely spoken, and a quality of life that is hard to match at the same cost at home.
Where the British Are Buying
From the Algarve to the Douro.
Each market trades on its own terms; the Portugal markets guide sets out how.
The Algarve
The heart of British Portugal for half a century. The Golden Triangle of Quinta do Lago and Vale do Lobo remains the prime address for golf and established estates, the western Algarve around Lagos and Carvoeiro offers cliffs and character, and the quieter east around Tavira and Praia Verde is gaining attention, with Nobu announcing a hotel and branded residences at Monte Rei for 2029.
Lisbon and Cascais
For families relocating rather than retiring: British and international schools along the Cascais line, a deep rental and resale market, and the largest apartments in the capital along Avenida da Liberdade.
Tróia, Comporta, and Melides
An hour south of Lisbon, protected dunes, pine forest, and discreet, low-density luxury, much of it traded off-market.
Porto and the Douro
Where the British connection runs deepest. Porto offers lower entry prices than Lisbon and a British school, and the Douro valley, birthplace of the port trade, offers quintas and vineyards with a history many British buyers already know.
Madeira
A British favorite since the nineteenth century, with year-round mild weather, direct flights from the UK, and a long tradition of British families on the island.
Before You Begin
What changed after Brexit.
Since 1 January 2021, British citizens are no longer EU citizens, and buying in Portugal now involves points that did not exist before. The purchase itself is unchanged: there is no restriction on British ownership of Portuguese property. What follows is orientation; every position is confirmed by tax and legal advisers in both countries before capital moves.
Residency and family
Visiting
Without residency, British visitors can stay in the Schengen area for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. That is enough for a holiday home, but not for living in Portugal for most of the year.
Living in Portugal
Britons who were resident before the end of 2020 keep their rights under the Withdrawal Agreement. New arrivals use the same routes as other non-EU nationals: the D7 for passive income, the D8 for remote work, or the Golden Visa through a qualifying fund or cultural donation. Buying property no longer qualifies on its own.
Healthcare
UK state pensioners can generally register for Portuguese public healthcare using the S1 form, and private health insurance is widely used alongside it.
Citizenship
Both countries permit dual nationality. Under Portugal's 2026 nationality law, British nationals qualify for naturalization after ten years of legal residence.
Tax and leaving the UK
The tax treaty
The UK–Portugal income tax convention, in place since 1968, allocates taxing rights and relieves double taxation. How a UK pension is taxed after the move depends on its type, so it is worth confirming before you go.
UK inheritance tax
Since April 2025, UK inheritance tax follows residence rather than domicile. Anyone resident in the UK for at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years remains exposed to it on their worldwide estate for between three and ten years after leaving. For many British buyers this is now the single most important planning point.
Portuguese inheritance
Portugal has no inheritance tax as such: close family members are exempt, and others pay a 10% stamp duty on Portuguese assets. The two systems need to be planned together.
Property you keep in the UK
Rental income and gains on UK property remain taxable in the UK after you leave, with relief for double taxation under the treaty.
How We Serve British Clients
The Portuguese end of a British mandate.
British interest in Portugal usually arrives in one of three forms. A family relocating, for whom the home, the school, and the residency route have to fit together. A buyer looking for a second home, most often in the Algarve, Comporta, or Madeira, and now planning around the 90-day rule. And an investor or family office building a position in Portuguese real estate: income-producing property in Lisbon, Porto, and Comporta, value-add and repositioning projects, hospitality, and development, with returns that have to be read in both euros and sterling.
In each, we are the party on the ground who sources the asset, including off-market, structures the acquisition, and holds the process together through completion and beyond. Legal, tax, and immigration matters are handled by our dedicated partners in Portugal, working alongside the client's own solicitor and tax adviser in the UK, so that both sides of the plan are built at the same time.
Reference
Anglo-Portuguese Treaty · 16 June 1373.
Transparency · Confidentiality · Execution
Luznur Capital is the commercial name of Lusomena Investments, Unipessoal Lda., a licensed real estate brokerage holding AMI 22354. This page offers general orientation for British buyers and investors; it does not constitute legal, tax, immigration, or investment advice. UK and Portuguese tax positions depend on individual circumstances and should be confirmed with qualified advisers in each country. Figures are drawn from published official sources at the date of writing and may change.
Where a client subscribes to a qualifying investment fund through an introduction from Luznur Capital, the company may receive an introduction fee from the manager under written agreement. Luznur Capital acts solely as an introducer: the fund is offered, sold, and managed by the fund manager, and any subscription is a transaction between the client and the manager. The questions that matter on any fund — manager track record, the fee stack, liquidity terms, and whether the 60% Portuguese allocation requirement is genuinely met — are set out in our guide to evaluating a fund, and clients are encouraged to have any fund assessed by an adviser with no interest in the outcome.
Lusomena Investments, Unipessoal Lda. · AMI 22354 · info@luznurcapital.com · +351 932 224 792
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