39 guides
Guides
Every figure on these pages is a link to the source it came from and the date it was read. Where a rule is contested we say both readings rather than picking the tidy one.
Move to Madeira
Visas, residency, shipping, banking and healthcare — the sequence, and what each step actually needs.
13 guides
Living here
The honest version. Weather by month, damp, driving, internet, community, and whether it gets boring.
6 guides
Buying property
What it costs on the day you sign, the contracts that commit you, and how to check an agent is licensed.
5 guides
Alojamento Local
Short-term rental in Madeira — a municipal filing under regional oversight, and the two halves answer to different bodies.
2 guides
Cost of living
Published tariffs, named and dated, with a calculator that takes your consumption rather than our assumptions.
4 guides
Where to live
Every town compared — the coast it faces, what is in it, and who it does not suit.
2 guides
Visiting
Walks, viewpoints, food and a ten-day route that does not spend its life in the car.
7 guides
Everything, newest first
Which regime a foreign licence falls under, and what each one asks
The four Portuguese regimes for a foreign driving licence, the six conditions the OECD and CPLP one attaches, and the deadline that reaches only some of them.
Every line that leaves the account on deed day
Transfer tax, stamp duty, registry and legal fees on a Madeira purchase: which lines are fixed by law, which are only practitioner-reported, and which are not.
Madeira has its own IMT table, and a non-resident buyer does not get it
IMT on a Madeira property purchase: the regional brackets, the flat rate that overrides them for a non-resident buyer, and the two-year residency cure.
Where an alojamento local is actually registered in Madeira
The AL filing goes to the câmara municipal through the national counter. What Madeira's own diploma transfers to the DRT and IRAE is oversight, not the filing.
Buying property in Madeira, step by step
The order a Madeira purchase happens in: tax number, promissory contract and deposit, deed, and the registration that fixes priority against third parties.
What living on Madeira actually costs
Madeira is cheap on tax and dear on power. Electricity, water, fuel and tax at the rates EEM, ARM and the tax authority published for 2026, each linked.
What to eat and drink on Madeira
Espetada on a laurel skewer, bolo do caco, lapas, black scabbardfish and poncha — the dishes, the couvert rule, and menu prices from restaurants that publish.
Madeira weather month by month, at three different stations
Monthly rainfall normals for Funchal, Santana and Chão do Areeiro, from IPMA. The north coast takes roughly twice the south’s rain, and the mountains far more.
Every residence route into Madeira, and which ones are open
Portugal's D7, D8, D2, D3 and family reunification routes as they apply on Madeira, plus the D8 income figure no published instrument could be found to set.
Where to live on Madeira: settle the coast before the town
The order that works on Madeira: coast first, then school, then town. What every place must have, what only Funchal has, and the traps in buses and drive times.
What an alojamento local owes, once the registration exists
The RNAL number and the duty to display it, insurance, the complaints book, guest reporting after SEF, the simplified-regime coefficient and licence transfer.
How the electricity and water bills are actually built
EEM sets the power tariff and the contracted power sets the standing charge. ARM bills five municipalities and the rest bill their own. The 2026 rates, linked.
Levada walks on Madeira, and the permit regime that arrived in 2026
Every classified trail on Madeira now needs a paid, dated timeslot booked on SIMplifica. The fees, the exemptions, the refund rule, and which trails are shut.
Madeira wine, read from its own specification
Sercial, Verdelho, Boal and Malmsey; estufagem against canteiro; the ageing and labelling rules, taken from the DOP specification rather than from wine blogs.
North coast or south coast: the difference, measured
In 2025 one Funchal station recorded 348.5 mm of rain and Santana 1,228.4 mm. The north–south gap in numbers, with the source and date behind every figure.
An EU passport makes this a registration, not an application
Free movement, the registration certificate issued by the câmara municipal after three months, and why the EU route into Madeira barely counts as a process.
Getting around Madeira: the bus network, the car, and what is unresolved
SAM no longer exists and the fares changed in April 2026. The SIGA network, the tariff table from the Jornal Oficial, and the questions nobody can answer yet.
IMI: what each Madeiran council actually charges
The annual property tax is a council decision inside a national range, charged on the rateable value, not the price paid. What Madeira councils set for 2026.
Madeira's EU-protected food and drink names
The complete register-sourced list of Madeira's eight EU-protected food and drink names, what is missing from it, and the banana claim two sources disagree on.
The 2026 nationality law rewrote the descent route
Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026 took effect on 19 May 2026. Naturalisation now runs seven or ten years, and the grandparent route added a language and history test.
The property golden visa closed in 2023 and has not reopened
Lei n.º 56/2023 removed every property route from Portugal's golden visa on 7 October 2023, indirect exposure included. What is open, and what a holder keeps.
Checking that an estate agent is actually licensed
Real estate mediation in Portugal needs an AMI licence issued by IMPIC and listed on a public register. How to search it, and what an angariador is not.
The regional income tax table, and the ones that are wrong
Madeira replaces the national IRS table with its own. From 2026 the full regional reduction runs across all nine brackets, topping out well under the mainland.
Working remotely from an island built on its side
Madeira has the highest fibre coverage in Portugal and the lowest take-up of it. What ANACOM's figures measure, why the relief matters, and the time zone.
Madeira in winter, and why February tells you more than August
August shows you the seafront. February shows you the island: the rain the north gets, the cold on the ridge, and the trails that close. With IPMA figures.
Damp, humidity, and the number IPMA stopped publishing
Madeira's relative humidity is barely measured. What IPMA actually publishes, why north-facing and high houses suffer most, and what shows up in a viewing.
IFICI is not NHR, and pensions are where the two part company
IFICI replaced NHR from 2024. Foreign income is exempt except Category H, which is pensions, so a retiree on a foreign pension gains nothing at all from it.
What a non-resident can actually borrow in Portugal
Banco de Portugal publishes a loan-to-value ceiling. What banks lend a non-resident against it is not published by anyone, so no figure appears on this page.
Keeping a car on a road that is mostly tunnel
The annual IUC tax, the IPO inspection interval, Funchal parking rates and the weekly regional fuel price — what owning a car on Madeira actually involves.
How the ninety-day rule counts a scouting trip to Madeira
Madeira sits inside Schengen, so visitor days count across the whole area on a rolling window. What that means for repeat scouting trips made before a move.
What the official statistics say about safety here
Recorded crime in Madeira against the national rate, the two official figures that disagree, and the hazards the regional civil protection plan actually ranks.
European Portuguese, and the accent that comes with the island
Where Portuguese courses actually exist on the island, why Madeiran speech is hard for learners, and the nationality language rule that changed in May 2026.
Is Madeira boring? For some people, yes
The official numbers on population, the festival calendar, cinema screens and the winter season — and an honest answer to the question that costs a sale.
The Portuguese tax number, and the representative rule that changed
What a Portuguese NIF is, how a non-resident is registered, and why the fiscal-representative rule for non-EU owners is not what older guides describe.
Opening a Portuguese account, first as a non-resident and then as a resident
The identification the anti-money-laundering law requires, what a non-resident is asked for in practice, and what actually changes on becoming resident here.
Registering for healthcare on an island where the service is SESARAM
Madeira's public health service is SESARAM, not a mainland ARS. How registration works, what a número de utente is, and where the island's acute hospital sits.
Settle the school before the town, because the commutes are ridge crossings
Compulsory education here runs through the regional education secretariat. What is documented about the state system, and why no tuition figures appear on it.
Bringing a car and a container to Madeira, and which of the two is documented
The ISV exemption on a change of residence, its conditions and deadlines, where a mover to Madeira files at the Alfândega do Funchal, and what is not covered.
Taking a dog, a cat or a ferret to Madeira, in the order the rule requires
Microchip before vaccination, the rabies wait, and the EU animal health certificate — plus the 2026 regulation that makes older pet-travel guidance out of date.