What we are

A publisher. We write about buying, moving to and living on Madeira, and we put the sources under the numbers so you can check them. We are not a real estate agency, we hold no AMI licence from IMPIC, and we never act as a mediator in a property transaction. We do not list, market, value, negotiate or sell property, and we represent neither buyer nor seller.

What we are paid

Nothing. Not by you, and not by anyone else.

We take no search fee, no buyer fee and no concierge fee. We are not paid an introducer fee, a referral fee or a commission by any brokerage, by any consultant, or by any of the places we recommend to stay. If we tell you somewhere is worth your time, it is because we think so, and there is no invoice behind it.

This used to read differently. An earlier version of this page said a brokerage paid us a fee when a sale completed. That arrangement is not in place, so the sentence is gone rather than softened.

The one thing we own

A house in São Gonçalo, on the eastern edge of Funchal, let as an Alojamento Local. It is ours. David Leça manages it for us — he handles the calendar, the bookings and the guests — so when you book it you are dealing with him day to day, and the house belongs to us. That is the whole of our commercial interest in this site, and it is why the villa has a page of its own rather than being slipped in among the recommendations.

What we never do

We never take money from a buyer. No search fee, no buyer fee, no concierge fee. Ever.
We never hold your money. No deposits, no escrow.
We never negotiate, value, or make an offer on your behalf. That is the brokerage’s job, and legally it has to be.
We never hide which brokerage holds a listing, and we never discourage you from contacting them directly.
We never rank a property, a brokerage or a place to stay by what it pays us, because none of them pay us anything.

What an introduction actually looks like

You ask to be introduced. We ask your permission to share your details with a specific, named brokerage and a specific, named consultant — not a general permission, a named one. Then you and the brokerage both get the same email on the same day, with a reference number on it.

That email tells you who they are and gives you their AMI number, so you can check it yourself on the IMPIC public register rather than taking our word for it. You keep that email. If you would rather we had not made the introduction, you reply and we withdraw it.

At the moment the panel is one brokerage: IAD Portugal, and the consultant handling Madeira is David Leça, under AMI 11220. If that ever becomes more than one, this page is where it will say so.

Why we tell you all this

Because a site like this only works if you trust the writing, and you cannot trust the writing if you are wondering who paid for it. The short answer is nobody — and saying that plainly is cheaper than being asked.