Climate, security and cheap housing attract foreign retirees to the Algarve which for the third year in a row has been voted the best place in the world to retire.
The survey from Live and Invest Overseas has been commissioned each year for 30 years and publishes a ranking of the best places in the world for a long and happy retirement.
The old bridge in Silves, known by many as ‘the Roman bridge,’ classified as a monument of public interest in February this year, has been closed by the council as the structure is in acute danger of collapse.
The 76-metre bridge was built in the 14th century on the site of an earlier structure. In the early seventeenth century the bridge lost two arches and had its forst major restoration.
The millionaire Portuguese banker’s dalliance with a former adviser to Tony Blair during a business trip to Singapore has not gone down well in some parts of the City of London with one analyst saying Horta Osório's contract as CEO of Lloyd Bank "should be terminated."
Revelations in The Sun that Horta Osório, married with four children, enjoyed ‘leisure time’ in Singapore with Wendy Piatt has caused huffs of indignation in the corridors of power and in City clubs as the Portuguese banker had prided himself on his wholesome family image.
Some 15,000 Spaniards are expected to head to France to work on the grape harvest in August and September.
They include day labourers and university graduates.
The Perseid meteor shower is expected to give its best performances on the nights of 11 and 12 August.
The shower has been active since 13 July and will continue to the end of this month, but tonight and tomorrow night will bring the best displays in years, according to the International Meteor Organization.
The unemployment rate in the Algarve fell to 8.1% in the second quarter of 2016, according to data released by the National Statistics Institute.
The Algarve currently has the lowest unemployment rate in the country having seen a 24.6% decrease from the same point last year.
Portugal’s Tax Authority has issued demands relating to nearly 40,000 properties whose 132,000 owners until now have been exempt from paying IMI due to a loophole.
The Tax Authority recently publicised the embarrassing loophole where automatic exemption from paying property tax (IMI) was given to property owners whose house has a valor patrimonial tax value of under €65,500 and who did not submit a tax return in Portugal, yet had registered their property as their main residence.
Ecological organisation Almargem has hit out at the Algarve’s regional Environment Agency over its activities at Maria Luísa beach in Albufeira and others, and the ‘continuing cynicism’ shown by the agency over the Algarve's dangerous cliffs.
The latest collapse of 1,000 m3 of rock onto the beach on August 7th, fortunately causing no casualties but again highlights the "reckless and cynical attitude of the regional Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente" (APA.)
