Insurance for Expats in Portugal

Why insurance in Portugal is a different problem when you have moved here

Nothing about Portuguese insurance is designed for someone who arrived last year. The policy wording is Portuguese, the assumptions behind it are Portuguese, and the questions an insurer asks — how the house is occupied, who holds the title, how long you have held a licence, whether you are tax resident — have answers that are straightforward for a Portuguese family and complicated for almost everyone else.

The result is rarely a dramatic failure. It is a quietly wrong policy: a house described as a permanent residence when it is empty for seven months, contents insured for a number nobody has revisited since the purchase, a health plan bought for a visa appointment that turns out not to cover the thing you actually needed. Those gaps surface at a claim, which is the worst possible moment to find them.

This page exists to answer one question before you spend money: what insurance do you actually need in Portugal, and in what order? Once that is clear, each product below has its own page, with its own quote form.

General guidance only. What any particular policy covers depends on the insurer, the wording and your circumstances — and nothing here is legal, tax or immigration advice.

What insurance can I get in Portugal?

These are the covers international residents ask us for most. Each one links to the page that handles it properly — this page is the map, not the destination.

Health

Home & property

Letting a property

Motor, life and specialist cover

If what you need is not here — personal accident, professional liability, domestic staff, cyber and fraud — describe it on the form and we will tell you whether we can place it.

Which situation are you in?

Most people arrive here knowing their circumstances rather than their product. Find yourself below and start where it makes sense to start.

I am moving to Portugal

• Private health insurance — usually the first thing arranged, and the one with medical questions attached
• Insurance for a visa or residence permit — what the cover behind an application is normally expected to show
• Home insurance — from the day you complete, not the day you move in
• Car insurance — foreign licences, imported vehicles and a no-claims record earned somewhere else
• Getting insured before you have a NIF or residency

I already live in Portugal

• Have your existing policies reviewed — we read what you already hold and tell you plainly whether it is worth changing
• Health insurance — including moving from one insurer to another
• Home insurance
• Car insurance — including a review of the policy you already hold

I have bought a property in Portugal

• Insurance to consider when buying property in Portugal — the full picture in one place
• Home insurance — buildings and contents, on values that reflect rebuilding rather than purchase price
• Mortgage life insurance — the bank’s proposal is not the only one available
• Apartment insurance — if the condominium policy leaves your side uncovered
• The documents an insurer will ask you for

I am moving with my family

• Moving to Portugal with your family: insurance to consider — health, home, car and life, and how they connect
• Health insurance — usually the first thing arranged for a family
• Car insurance — more than one driver, foreign licences and no-claims history

I rent out my property

• Landlord insurance — start here whatever the letting arrangement
• Long-term residential lets
• Letting from abroad
• Holiday letting and Alojamento Local

I live between Portugal and another country

• International health insurance — when treatment may happen in more than one country
• Second home insurance
• Cover for the months the house is empty
• Holding cover in Portugal and elsewhere

I am retiring in Portugal

• Health insurance — age limits and medical history matter more here than anywhere else
• Health cover that still accepts you at 65+
• Home insurance
• Long-term care planning

I own valuable property or assets

• High-value homes, art, jewellery and marine — scheduled cover rather than a contents sub-limit
• What changes above the retail range
• Art and collections in a Portuguese home

Moving to Portugal? Start with the insurance you actually need

There is no single checklist, because what you need depends on what you are doing here. The honest version is a short list of questions, and the answers point at different products.

• Are you applying for a visa or a residence permit? Applications are normally expected to be supported by health cover, and what qualifies depends on the route and on what is asked for at the time. We work from what is actually being requested rather than from a general rule — see insurance for a Portuguese visa and what counts as valid proof.
• Are you buying, or renting? Buyers need buildings cover from completion, and a mortgage normally brings a life policy with it. Tenants insure their own contents and their own liability, not the landlord’s building.
• Are you bringing a car? An imported vehicle has to be matriculated before a Portuguese motor policy attaches to it, and your foreign claims history may or may not be recognised by the insurer you approach.
• Will the property sit empty? Unoccupancy is the single most common reason an otherwise good home policy stops responding. Say it out loud at quotation, not at claim.
• Are you retiring here? Health insurance is the product where age and medical history bite hardest, and the options narrow the longer it is left.
• Are you working remotely, or still running something abroad? Income earned outside Portugal, and businesses still held elsewhere, change which liability and health arrangements make sense.
• Will you keep a base in another country? Splitting your year is the case international health insurance exists for, and it is worth deciding before you buy a domestic plan.

The practical parts of arriving — the NIF, the bank account, a Portuguese address for correspondence — are handled on our relocation page, and fiscal representation is there for owners who are not tax resident.

We are an insurance broker. We do not give immigration advice, and we do not tell you what a visa route requires — we arrange the insurance and explain what it does.

Ticked more than one box above? Start an insurance review instead and tell us everything at once — one form, one broker, rather than several separate quote requests.

Already living in Portugal? The review is the useful part

Most of the people who come to us already have policies. They were bought quickly, in a language nobody read closely, often through whoever was standing nearest at the time — the bank at the mortgage signing, the dealer at the car handover, the previous owner’s broker at completion.

A review is not a sales exercise. It is us reading what you hold and telling you three things: what it covers, what it does not, and whether it is worth changing. Sometimes the answer is that it is fine and you should keep it.

If you own property in Portugal but live somewhere else

Non-resident ownership is normal here and insurers deal with it routinely, but it changes the shape of the policy. The property is empty for long stretches, nobody local is responsible for it day to day, the correspondence goes abroad, and a claim has to be handled by someone who is not standing in the building.

• Occupancy is the material fact A house used eight weeks a year is not the risk an insurer prices as a permanent home. Describing it accurately at quotation is what keeps the policy responding later — see second home insurance and unoccupied property.
• Letting changes the contract Rent turns a home policy into a landlord policy, and long-term tenancies and holiday letting are underwritten differently. Start at landlord insurance, or at non-resident landlord cover if you are abroad.
• You will need a NIF A Portuguese tax number is normally needed to hold a policy on a Portuguese property, and it is the item that most often holds a purchase up. How to get one as a non-resident, and fiscal representation if you need a representative address.
• Claims happen while you are not here Water escaping in an empty house is the classic non-resident claim. We handle the insurer’s side in Portuguese and report back to you in English.
• The title may be held through a company Ownership through a company or a trust changes who the policyholder is, and getting that wrong is a problem at claim rather than at quotation.

The problems international clients actually bring us

Two further reads if any of this is familiar: making a claim in Portugal when you do not speak Portuguese, and what changed for British residents after Brexit.

Why Adler & Rochefort

We are an insurance broker registered with the Portuguese supervisory authority (ASF) under no. 425591790/3, based in Lagos in the Algarve and working with international clients across Portugal. English is our working language.

• A broker, not an insurer We hold agency agreements with several insurers and place your risk where it fits, rather than fitting you to one company’s product.
• Everything explained in English The questions we ask, the comparison we send, the exclusions we read to you, and the renewal a year later.
• Advice across more than one line Health, home, letting, motor, life and specialist cover in one place, which is what most international households actually need.
• Experience with international clients Non-resident owners, second homes, foreign licences, company-held title and dual-country lives are ordinary work here, not exceptions.
• Support after the policy is issued Mid-term changes, renewals and claims. We deal with the insurer in Portuguese and come back to you in English.
• A free written comparison in 24 hours In writing, so you can read it twice. No obligation and no call centre.

If you are in Lagos, Luz, Portimão or the wider Algarve, our local page has the detail for the area: insurance for expats in Lagos and the Algarve.

Guides for international residents

Written for people who did not grow up with the Portuguese system.

• Health insurance for expats in Portugal
• SNS or private cover — do expats need both?
• Portuguese health insurance vs international health insurance
• A complete insurance guide for Americans moving to Portugal
• British residents after Brexit: what changed
• Insurance in Portugal and Spain, by nationality
• Car insurance for expatriates in Portugal
• Moving with a pre-existing condition
• Making a claim when you do not speak Portuguese
• How to get a NIF as a non-resident