A River-View Apartment in Old Town Porto

It was during the height of the pandemic in 2020 that designer Jeff Wade started to rethink his life choices. “My work as a designer had literally shut down. My vendors, showrooms, and everything had come to a halt. I had no work, and there was no money coming in,” he explains.

Jeff has owned his own design company since 1995 and spent the past 20 years commuting from Miami to Europe. “I had been to Portugal many times to buy furniture, lighting, and other stuff to ship back to the US for my clients, but I had never done any manufacturing there.”

Then Jeff realized that there was a niche market for those who wanted high-quality textiles that could be found in Portugal. “Porto is the hub of Europe for manufacturing textiles,” says Jeff. For him, this was a dream come true. “In Porto, I could produce a collection of high-quality items to sell to my US clients and make a better life for myself.”

He applied for a long-stay resident visa called the D2 for entrepreneurs. This allows him to work in Portugal for his own online company.

In March 2020, he made the decision and by August he was living in Porto surrounded by all of his worldly belongings that he shipped at a cost of €5000 ($5,520). “Being surrounded by everything that is familiar and has meaning to me, despite being in a new country, is so comforting.”

One of the main reasons that Jeff chose Porto is because it has one of the country’s three international airports. “I needed to be able to jump on a flight at any time to reach my US clients or if my aging mother needed me,” Jeff says. “And it’s not any further than flying across the US.”

It was through a realtor website that Jeff found his apartment—a modern, refurbished two-bedroom, two-bathroom corner space with a magnificent view of the Douro River. The realtor walked him through the apartment virtually and later sent him a floor plan with the measurements so he could see if his furniture was going to fit into it.

“I was not 100% sure that it would all fit because cameras do lie, but it did,” Jeff explains. “This was the first time I had ever rented an apartment sight unseen; it was scary, but it all worked out in the end.”

The inside of his two-bedroom, two-bathroom, modern apartment comes with all of the modern comforts including insulation, heat, air conditioning, and double-paned windows. But on the outside, because it’s situated within the old town of Porto, a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996, no changes could be made to the outside of the building.

Like many buildings in Portugal, the outside of Jeff’s apartment is covered with beautiful traditional azulejos, or Portuguese tiles. In order to preserve the character of the building a professional tile maker in Lisbon was called upon by the construction company to carefully recreate the lime green, shell-shaped tiles to look exactly like the original ones.

“I like to say that I have an old-new apartment,” Jeff says with a smile. “On the inside everything is brand new but outside the building has the same charming look it’s had since the early 1800s.” Jeff’s river-view apartment rents for €1,400 ($1,545) a month.

US designer Jeff Wade works remotely from Portugal for his own online company.

Summers in Porto are mild with highs only reaching into the 70s F and rarely exceeding 80 F. Winter brings lots of rain and cold temperatures, something that Jeff was not used to from his life in the Sunshine State of Florida. “Now that I’ve become accustomed to the weather in Porto I hate going back to Miami in the heat of the summer,” he says.

Like many Americans, Jeff was happy to escape the high prices of US healthcare. “I’ve been amazed at how kind and caring the doctors are here,” Jeff explains. “They spend so much time with their patients.”

Jeff carries private health insurance through Allianz at a cost of €150 ($165) per month but also has access to the public healthcare system. “Whenever I would call my doctor in the US for an appointment, they would not have any available for months and months,” Jeff says. “Here I can walk into a public or private clinic near me, tell them I need to see a doctor and I can get an appointment the same day.

“And I’ve been so impressed by the pharmacists here who know more than many US doctors do, and they all seem to speak English. I just explain my symptoms to them, and they diagnose me and prescribe the medicine I need. They get it right every time. Just today I filled a prescription that cost €31 ($34) which I thought was expensive until the pharmacist told me that same prescription would sell for $1,300 in the US.”

In Porto Jeff lives like a king on just €2,200 ($2,430) per month, including rent, utilities, water, phone, Wi-Fi, household help, private health insurance, and eating out once a week. Cooking is Jeff’s passion that keeps him healthy and is a way for him to relax and unwind.

“When I do dine out at a nice restaurant with wine, I only end up paying around €40 ($44). That’s so much less than I would pay in any US city,” he says. “I didn’t come here to get a bargain; it just happens to be an added bonus.”

Porto is a roller coaster of hilly streets all covered with cobblestones that can be slippery when wet. Even though Jeff was accustomed to power walking in New York and Miami, the hills of Porto had him gasping for air initially. “Since I’m living without a car I had to keep walking around the city day after day, and after four years I’m finally used to it, but it was tough at first,” he explains.

Overall, he is more than happy with his decision to relocate.

“I love everything about my life in Porto. Moving here was the best decision I’ve ever made, and I have absolutely no regrets.”