Product Description

It is difficult to quantify how many Brits are currently looking to buy a second home in Portugal. Blendon Communications, publishers of "Homes Overseas", are confident that there will soon be a resurgence there following a recent change to Portuguese property law. Every home owner has to go through the process of searching for property and buying it; most new and existing owners will be renovating or redecorating at some point and this will involve dealing with tradesmen and/or suppliers. For this, these homebuyers will need to understand at least the basics of Portuguese property law, house construction, building, plumbing, electrical systems etc, and they need to know not only the words but how the systems work. "Teach Yourself Buying a Home in Portugal" gives the explanations and vocabulary for each aspect of finding, buying, renovating and living in a house in Portugal. In addition to approximately 90 labeled illustrations, the book has a CD which gives the pronunciation and practice of the necessary vocabulary. The book is published in association with "Homes Overseas", the UK's best-selling specialist international real estate magazine and host to over 30 annual exhibitions providing information on properties overseas.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #769927 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

About the Author
Peter MacBride is a successful author who writes from his own experience of buying a home abroad. Nat MacBride is a graduate in Portuguese. Bill and Isa Reed run a hotel in Portugal. Isa is a native speaker of Portuguese.

Customer Reviews

Quite good!
I am looking into buying a place in the Algarve and this book has been a great help. It guides you through the buying process in Portugal, giving you the specialised language you need at each stage, legal and also practical to do with building etc. It takes you through the search for property, the purchase, etc. It has a lot of diagrams with the words for woodwork, plumbing, heating, decorating, garden, etc. The diagrams show the Portuguse words for details like joist, drain cock, current tester, circuit breaker, different types of locks and bolts. There are also lists of vocabulary by topic. This book has been a great help to me. I just wish the vocabulary lists were at the end of the book instead. Some words are difficult to find as it is. You dont always know what section to look up for them. This can be frustrating.

Also dont expect the book to teach you the language. It is not for that. It gives you the vocabulary to go with buying property in all its various aspects, but that is it. For the language I have Manuela Cook's Portuguese course, which is excellent and gives you also vocabulary and phrases for things you need when you have got your home in the country, like talking to your cleaner and the like. Also socialising, getting a job, etc.