Portugal fell from the top spot

There's a new favourite for retiring abroad, and it isn't in Europe. It's Monday, 5 October. Twenty-five degrees. Air quality: 49 (Good). Here's what you need to know.

🗞️ TOP STORY

PORTUGAL SLIPS TO FIFTH IN THE WORLD RETIREMENT RANKING

Portugal is no longer the best place in the world to retire abroad, according to Global Citizen Solutions' retirement index. It topped the 2025 edition but has dropped to fifth this year. Uruguay takes first place, Mauritius is second and Spain third. The index compares 46 retirement and passive-income residence programmes on quality of life, travel freedom and routes to citizenship, tax, how the application works, and cost.

The fall came as Portugal made its route to citizenship much longer. Under the new nationality law in force since May, most non-EU residents now need ten years in Portugal before they can apply, up from five; citizens of the EU and the CPLP, the Portuguese-speaking countries, need seven. The clock now starts when the residence permit is issued, not when the application went in. For an index that gives real weight to how quickly you can get a passport, that's a big change.

Two other scores hold Portugal back. Getting a retirement visa and residence permit approved can take up to two years, against eight months in Spain, and Portugal ranks 41st of 46 on tax. The report doesn't give its reasoning, but the rules for new arrivals are clear. The Non-Habitual Resident (NHR) regime, which taxed foreign pensions at a flat 10%, has closed to newcomers, and its replacement, IFICI, doesn't cover pensions at all. A retiree moving here now pays ordinary income tax on a foreign pension, on a scale that runs up to 48%.

Portugal still does well where it always has. It's one of the most affordable major routes into Europe: the D7, the passive-income visa, requires €920 a month in income, and the country scores highly on travel freedom. The margins are tight, too, with fewer than four points separating first place from tenth.

Europe as a whole still dominates the top ten, with Spain, Portugal, Latvia, Andorra, Italy and Greece all in it. Spain is Europe's best performer but comes last of all 46 on tax. Greece and southern Italy, by contrast, offer a 7% flat tax on foreign pensions.

If you already live here, a ranking changes nothing about daily life. Where it matters is citizenship: if you're on a D7 or another residence permit and planning to apply for a Portuguese passport, the ten-year rule and its new start date are what to check, not the league table.

Bottom line: Portugal's slide is about how long it now takes to become Portuguese, not about what it's like to live here.

⚡ QUICK HITS

Today is Republic Day, a national holiday. It marks 5 October 1910, when the monarchy fell and the Republic was proclaimed from the balcony of Lisbon's city hall after days of fighting. King Manuel II, Portugal's last king, went into exile. For today, branches of CTT, the national postal service, and its bank, Banco CTT, are generally closed, though some CTT points inside shopping centres stay open. The Metro runs from 6:30am to 1am but less often than usual. Amoreiras shopping centre is open 10am to 11pm and Colombo 10am to midnight. Tomorrow brings disruption of its own: staff at AIMA, the immigration agency, hold a 24-hour national strike, and teachers in FENPROF, the largest teachers' union, start a strike against overtime and extra duties that runs until 9 October.

Brazilian speech therapists say prejudice against their accent is keeping them out of their profession in Portugal. The Brazilian Speech Therapists Association in Portugal, set up last year, told The Guardian that barely any Brazilians have been licensed to practise since 2019. Its president, Tanise Anhaia, calls it glottophobia, discrimination against a way of speaking, and says the examiner who failed her in 2021 told her she didn't speak European Portuguese. ACSS, the health system body that issues the licences, has said some candidates lacked the knowledge to assess Portuguese patients and that their degrees weren't equivalent, but declined to comment further. One therapist, Iracema Ferreira, gave up after a decade in the job and retrained as a nurse. Brazilians are Portugal's largest foreign community, at more than 480,000, and in 2023, 55% told INE, the national statistics institute, that they had faced discrimination, the highest share of any nationality.

Portugal is ending witness protection for Football Leaks whistleblower Rui Pinto. The 37-year-old hacker behind Football Leaks, which published millions of leaked documents on the business of European football, has been under police protection since 2020, when he agreed to cooperate with Portuguese investigators. His leaks also helped trigger the Premier League's case against Manchester City. The protection ends this Saturday, 10 October. Pinto says he has received death threats, and his lawyers, who are challenging the decision and call it "state terrorism", point to an assault on him in Lisbon earlier this year. The civic group Frente Cívica has written to Justice Minister Rita Alarcão Júdice questioning whether ending the programme is legal. According to The Guardian, Pinto is willing to help UK authorities in exchange for protection, but no deal has been confirmed. An independent commission found City responsible for more than 100 breaches of Premier League financial rules; the club denies wrongdoing and is appealing.

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🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY

GERADORA (TAPADA DA AJUDA)

If you've got the day off, here's somewhere new that's worth the trip. Geradora opened on 18 September inside the Tapada da Ajuda, the leafy grounds of the Instituto Superior de Agronomia, the agriculture school, and it's the new Lisbon project from Esporão, the Alentejo wine and olive oil producer. The building went up in the early 20th century as a power station for the Ajuda royal palace, though it never did that job. Its hydraulic floor tiles, azulejos and big windows have been restored or recreated from the originals, and alongside the restaurant there's a shop, a small museum and a craft beer bar run by Musa.

The kitchen is run by Manuel Liebaut, formerly executive chef at Loco and Fogo, with stints at Tickets in Barcelona and Burnt Ends in Singapore. The menu is short and seasonal, with six starters, six mains and four desserts, all contemporary Portuguese. Starters include a mussel rabanada with onion and cured pork fat (€6) and cuttlefish tempura with parsley (€8). Mains lean towards fish, from grilled amberjack (€22.50) to steamed meagre with xerém, a cornmeal porridge, and grilled corn (€18), with lamb, duck and breaded pork for meat eaters. Expect to spend €30 to €50 a head.

Worth knowing before you go: it's lunch only for now, from noon to 3pm, Thursday to Monday, and closed Tuesday and Wednesday. There are 52 seats inside and a terrace for 25 more. Bookings are by email, at [email protected].

→ Find them here ←

Insider tip: the journey is part of it. Ride-hailing apps don't always agree on the way in, but if you enter through the Instituto Superior de Agronomia's main gate near Santo Amaro, it's still a few kilometres' drive through farm plots and cork oaks, and you may spot a peacock or two on the way.

📅 WHAT'S ON

See you tomorrow morning.

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