PORTUGUESE RETIREMENT
We’re ha ad
adventure n Portuga but iit NO one lon holiday!
e having a r ure in P i
al butl t’s NOT one long holiday!” a real
Retirees Tony and Pat Wadsworth divide their year between Billericay in Essex and Cascais, near Lisbon. Here they tell Liz Rowlinson about the great benefi ts and challenges of running two homes
T
he Wadsworths had never heard of Cascais before Pat started working for a swimwear designer and was tasked with setting up a
subsidiary in the affl uent suburb of Lisbon in the 1990s. Over a series of regular work trips, when
Tony would pop over for the weekend to make a bit of a holiday of it, their love of the area grew, says Pat, now 61. “We’d always dreamt for buying a home
abroad, probably in France, but one of these weekend trips to Portugal we suddenly had a Eureka moment and both agreed that we should buy in Cascais instead. It would make sense that we had a base there so I wouldn’t have to keep staying in hotels.”
City bolthole T ey bought a two-bed ground-fl oor apartment in a small block of seven properties in the centre of Cascais with a little balcony for £160k in 2002. Cascais is a former fi shing village that has evolved into a popular residential area for retirees and commuters from Lisbon. Off ering traditional architecture, beaches, good restaurants and nine championship golf courses nearby (in
neighbouring Estoril in whose Hotel Palacio writer Ian Fleming drank martinis and found inspiration for his James Bond novels) it appeals to lifestyle buyers rather than investors. “It was perfect for weekends and school
holidays, when we’d bring our grandson over with us – aſt er Tony retired in 2002 he took on full-time childcare – and we loved our cosmopolitan mix of neighbours. In fact we love the fact that Cascais is very international and not a British enclave,” says Pat, who adds that it is any easy half-hour drive from Lisbon airport. Not wanting to enter the Portuguese fi scal
system – it’s quite bureaucratic, says Pat - they didn’t rent out their home, but it was great for remote working for fi ve years when they began to think of upsizing. “When Tony’s commitments back at home
fi nished, and the family was growing up, we decided to sell our apartment and move out of town to get more house for our money,” says Pat. “It was the recession but we got the money back on the apartment and we bought a four-bedroom, three-bath house in Murches, a village six or seven minutes outside Cascais and only fi ve minutes to Guincho beach well-known for surfi ng [pictured overleaf]. It’s on a development
aplaceinthesun.com | 67
Main:
The beach at Cascais, near Lisbon. Inset: Pat and Tony Wadsworth in Cascais
Below:
The Wadsworths’ four-bedroom home in Murches, a village just outside Cascais
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