An Irishwoman in Portugal: ‘Blue skies, bilingual children and a flight home in three hours’

Year round sunshine, friendly locals, a pleasant outdoor lifestyle and affordable – and in many cases, free – childcare are among the attractions that tempt many young Irish couples to relocate to Portugal‘s Algarve.

The area has long been popular with Irish holidaymakers and retired people, but Amy Kerins and her family are typical of a more recent influx that has swollen the expat population along Portugal’s southern coastline.

Kerins says it was never her intention to leave Ireland. But when her husband Ross, who works as a pilot for Ryanair, was transferred out to Faro in the Algarve as his base in 2020, the couple decided to move there permanently with their two young daughters.

When it was time for the children to go to school, the couple decided not to enrol them in the local international school, in part because they wanted to integrate more with the local Portuguese community.

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“It means our kids are speaking Portuguese with perfect accents, even though they are blond and fair-skinned. It’s rare enough for Irish people to be bilingual so with the world being more international, it is setting them up well. They learn in parallel rather than having to translate everything, as I would have to do.”

The excellent childcare provided by the Portuguese state has facilitated Kerins resuming her marketing career full-time with the local arm of international estate agents Savills, which has three offices in the region. As marketing director of QP Savills, she spearheads a team marketing luxury property in the €1 million plus price bracket.

According to the firm’s 2025 review, the average sale price achieved by the agency last year was just under €2.4 million. Demand for properties currently outstrips supply which has kept prices buoyant.

Sustainability has emerged as a significant consideration with eco-friendly and smart home features in demand while turnkey properties are also popular with buyers.

British buyers account for 45 per cent of purchasers with Irish clients second at 18 per cent but Kerins has noticed a broadening of enquiries recently, including an upsurge of interest from potential US purchasers, attracted to the lower cost of living, accessible healthcare, warm climate and relaxed vibe that the area offers.

“We’re also seeing people who used to be in Hong Kong or Dubai who want to come back but don’t want to give up the expat lifestyle they were used to or people who live in the Middle East who want to escape the summer heat.”

Remote working is another draw to the area for many around the world and the Algarve has an attractive digital nomad scheme for non-EU residents who can prove they have a professional income above €42,000 a year.

The Algarve has long been popular with the Irish, but the traditional demographic of mature holidaymakers and second home owners has been swollen by a younger cohort lately.

“The Algarve would traditionally have been associated with golf and retirement but, since Covid, a lot of younger families have moved here.

“You are so close to home. You can live the expat lifestyle, enjoy the sun but not be too far away if you ever need to get home quickly. There are multiple flights every day all year round and you can be back in Ireland in around three hours.”

The region is famous for its all-year-round sunshine.

“The brightness and the blue skies and the ability to go for walks all year round is a great attraction. You might need a jacket or a jumper in the height of winter but it’s nothing like the harshness that you get in Ireland.”

“It used to be dead here in the winter months and restaurants used to close down. That doesn’t happen so much any more as there are people here all year round and people want to go to their favourite restaurants in November and January.”

The easy access means that retired couples who find the winters in Ireland tough can spend those months in Portugal and then they rent their houses out during the summer.

“You can make amazing income here doing that or you have people who have been coming out on holidays for 40 years and are now basing themselves here and their children and grandchildren come out to visit them, so you have that intergenerational aspect going on.

“In the winter, flights from Ireland can be very cheap and people can look at the weather forecast and decide to come out at the last minute”

The couple enjoy a short commute to their work from their home in Vilamoura.

“There’s no traffic. I’ve a 15 minute drive to my office, and Ross is just 25 minutes from the airport. Whenever I go back to Dublin and talk to friends, I realise what a big issue traffic is for them.”

They have no plans to return to Ireland in the foreseeable future and one of Kerins’s immediate ambitions is to improve her Portuguese.

“I do speak a bit of Portuguese, and I do have a lot of Portuguese friends, but they all speak fluent English, so I need to push myself a little harder. I try to practice my Portuguese with them, but they all respond to me in English.”