Removals from Essex
to Portugal

Portugal has become the destination Essex households ask about most after France. The reasons are consistent enough to be predictable: the cost of living still compares favourably, the coast is less built up than parts of Spain, and there is a settled community that makes arriving less of a leap.

The move itself is not complicated. It is simply long, and it has one document at the front of it that most people have never heard of.

The certificate that sets the timetable

Relief from duty on household goods entering Portugal generally depends on a certificado de bagagem — a certificate of baggage — applied for through the Portuguese consular service before the goods travel, supported by your NIF and evidence of the Portuguese address.

That is the whole reason we push people to start on this route earlier than on the others. The inventory is ours to prepare and we will have it ready. The NIF and the residence evidence are yours, they cannot be rushed, and the vehicle does not move without them. We say all of this on day one rather than a fortnight before loading.

The road

Out of Essex onto the M25, across Kent, the crossing, then France. Vehicles bound for Portugal take the Atlantic side almost without exception — Bordeaux, the border at Irún, and across northern Spain.

From there it depends where you are going. Porto and the north via the A-52 through Vigo. Lisbon and the Silver Coast through Salamanca and across at Vilar Formoso. The Algarve south through Mérida and Seville and over the Guadiana at Ayamonte. All of them multi-day, all of them run under tachograph rules, and the schedule you get reflects that rather than a best case.

Where deliveries go

• The Algarve — Lagos, Portimão, Albufeira, Tavira and the inland barrocal
• Lisbon and the Setúbal peninsula — the city, Cascais, Sesimbra
• The Silver Coast — Caldas da Rainha, Óbidos, Nazaré, Figueira da Foz
• Porto and the north — the city, the Douro valley, the Minho
• The central interior — Coimbra, Castelo Branco, the Serra da Estrela villages
• The Alentejo — Évora and the quintas towards the Spanish border

Finding the address

Coastal apartments behave like coastal apartments anywhere — the lift and the parking are the questions. Rural Portugal is different. The last kilometre is often a track, the gate is usually narrower than the wall suggests, and the turning circle decides what we can send.

On anything away from a town we ask for coordinates rather than a postal address, plus photographs of the approach. A driver who has never been there should not be relying on a satnav that thinks the track is a road.

Storage, which most people end up needing

Portuguese residence paperwork almost never lines up neatly with an Essex sale. So a good share of these moves involve the household going into store here while the documents come together, then travelling once the certificate exists. It is quoted alongside the move rather than as a separate arrangement, and the same inventory follows it through.

Why people go

Cost, climate and pace, roughly in that order, plus a residency framework that has been comparatively straightforward for people arriving from the UK. The Algarve gets the attention, but a fair share of the moves we handle go inland or to the Silver Coast, where the money buys land and the winters are quieter.

Starting the move

Send both addresses, your dates, and — importantly — how far along you are with the NIF and the residence evidence. We will survey, quote in writing, and set out the order to do things in. See European removals for the vehicle options and Spain for the route sharing most of the same road.