Guides
Moving to Lisbon
The practical parts nobody explains until you are already here, how renting actually works, what a realistic month costs, what a NIF is and when you need one.
- 4 guides
- Written in Lisbon
- Updated for 2026
Guides
Start here
Written for people arriving from outside Portugal, which is who most of our residents are.
How to Get a NIF in PortugalWhat a Portuguese NIF is, who needs one, how to get it as a non-resident and what it costs, plus what you can do in Lisbon before you have one.Read more
Renting in Lisbon: How It Actually WorksHow renting works in Lisbon, guarantors, deposits, contract lengths, what landlords ask for and the routes that skip most of it. A guide for new arrivals.Read more
The Cost of Living in LisbonWhat a month in Lisbon actually costs (rent, bills, transport, food and the extras) with real room prices from our own inventory across 11 neighbourhoods.Read more
Moving to Lisbon: A Practical ChecklistA step-by-step checklist for moving to Lisbon, what to sort before you fly, in your first week and in your first month, in the order that actually works.Read more
TL;DR
The short version
Sort accommodation first: the bank account, the address registration and the health centre all get easier once you have a confirmed Lisbon address. The ordinary rental market will ask you for a Portuguese guarantor, a tax number and a local bank account before it will let you have one, which is the loop most new arrivals get stuck in.
Booking a room that does not require any of those breaks the loop. We have 500+ of them across 13 neighbourhoods, from €440 a month with bills included.
Longer reads
From the blog
The guides tell you what to do. These tell you what it is actually like.
Getting Around Lisbon: Metro, Trams, Buses and the Navegante Card9 min readFour metro lines, a tram network older than most countries, and one card that covers all of it for €40 a month. Here is how Lisbon's transport works when you live here rather than visit.Read more- Which Lisbon Neighbourhood Should You Live In?11 min readMost neighbourhood guides are written for people staying four nights. This one is written for people staying a year, which turns out to be a completely different question.Read more
Erasmus in Lisbon: Accommodation, Paperwork and the Academic Calendar10 min readLisbon is one of the most popular Erasmus destinations in Europe, which is lovely for the social life and brutal for the housing market. Here is how to get ahead of it.Read more
What Living in Lisbon Is Really Like10 min readThe questions people actually type into Google before they commit to a year here, safety, tap water, winters, the language, and the things nobody warns you about.Read more
Have the room waiting when you land
Book online from anywhere and walk into a furnished room with the wifi already working.
