Door-to-door removals from the UK to Portugal, run by road from our Lower Dicker depot with collections nationwide. Full loads and shared part-loads, export packing, and the post-Brexit customs file prepared with you before your furniture leaves Britain.
Removals to Portugal from the UK have become one of our most requested European routes, and most of the people asking are not moving for work. They are retiring to the Algarve, taking the D7 visa for a quieter life on the Silver Coast, or relocating a young family to Lisbon or Porto on the strength of a remote job. That changes what a good move looks like. Nobody is in a rush to hit a Monday start date; what matters is that the furniture you chose to keep arrives intact, clears customs without a duty bill, and can actually be carried into a villa at the end of a dirt track or a fourth-floor flat in the old town.
The Algarve takes the largest share of our Portuguese work: Lagos, Albufeira, Loulé, Tavira and the inland villages behind them, where a great many British households have settled over the years. Lisbon and the coast around it — Cascais, Estoril and Sintra — draw families and remote workers who want a capital city with good schools and an international airport. Porto and the north are cooler, greener and cheaper, and increasingly popular with people who found the Algarve too busy. The Silver Coast between Lisbon and Porto, around Óbidos, Caldas da Rainha and Nazaré, has become a quieter alternative for retirees, and central Portugal around Coimbra and Castelo Branco suits anyone restoring a rural property.
We deliver to the whole of mainland Portugal on the same service. Madeira and the Azores are different: they are island moves that finish by sea, so we plan and quote those individually rather than pretending they run like the mainland.
Portugal is the far end of Europe by road. From the Channel crossing it is roughly two thousand kilometres through France and Spain to Lisbon, and further to the Algarve. Drivers’ hours rules limit how far a removal vehicle can legally travel in a day, so this is a multi-day journey with planned rest stops rather than a single long push, and your furniture stays on the same vehicle throughout on a direct load.
Depending on the load and the timing, the route either runs the full length of France and Spain by road — the same corridor we use for our removals to France and removals to Spain — or crosses the Bay of Biscay by ferry into northern Spain and drives south from there. We pick whichever gets your goods there safely on the date agreed; it is not something you need to manage, but it is worth knowing why a Portugal move takes longer than one to the Netherlands.
Portugal is in the EU and the UK is not, so since Brexit a move to Portugal is a formal import. The relief that matters is the EU transfer-of-residence exemption, which normally lets you bring used household effects in free of duty and import VAT when you are moving your normal home. The standard conditions apply: you must have lived outside the EU for at least twelve months, have owned and used the goods for at least six months, and import them within twelve months of establishing residence.
Two Portuguese details catch people out. The first is the NIF, your Portuguese tax number, which you will need for almost everything — including the customs file — so get it early. The second is proof that you are genuinely relocating: your residence visa, such as the D7 or the D8, and in due course your residence permit. Alcohol, tobacco and vehicles sit outside the standard relief. The Portuguese Tax and Customs Authority publishes the current conditions, and we build the numbered, valued inventory with you before the vehicle leaves Britain.
Portuguese deliveries are rarely held up by the road and often held up by the last hundred metres. Plenty of Algarve villas sit at the end of narrow rural lanes that no full-size removal vehicle will get down, so we plan for a smaller vehicle to shuttle the load from the main road. In Lisbon’s older districts, such as Alfama and Graça, the streets are steep, cobbled and sometimes shared with trams; in Porto’s Ribeira they are steeper still.
Older apartment buildings in both cities often have a lift built for two people and no luggage, and a staircase that turns tightly on every landing. Where the vehicle has to occupy the street, the local câmara can require permission in advance. And in high summer, an inland Algarve delivery at midday is hard work for the crew and bad for anything heat-sensitive, so we plan early starts.
We survey for all of this before we quote, so the price already reflects the shuttle, the stairs and the timing rather than surprising you on the day.
Allow 10–14 days door to door from collection, which is the figure we publish across our European removals service. The distance is the main reason: it is the longest road run we do in mainland Europe, and the drivers’ hours rules set a minimum on how quickly it can be done safely.
A sole-use load going direct sits at the quicker end of that window. A shared part-load waits for the scheduled departure, which is the trade-off that keeps the cost down for a smaller move. The genuine variables are the season — spring and early autumn are busy on this route — and access at the Portuguese end: if a shuttle vehicle or street permission is needed, that can set the delivery date rather than the transport.
We are a family-run Sussex firm, established in 2017, and international work is a weekly part of what we do rather than an occasional sideline. The crew who pad-wrap your furniture in Britain are the people who load it, so nothing is handed between strangers before it leaves our Lower Dicker depot. We pack for the distance and the climate, not just for a tidy lorry. If you would rather not pack at all, our full packing service covers the whole house; if you are doing the boxes yourself, we deliver export-grade packing materials beforehand. Anything fragile or valuable — a marble top, a mirror, a painting — goes in a purpose-built box from our custom crate service, and a piano gets the specialist handling it needs.
We are a member of the British Association of Removers Overseas Group and work to the BS 8564 standard for international removals. If your dates do not line up — a sale completing before the new place is ready — we can hold everything in storage before shipping and send it on when you are. Read our customer reviews, or call 01323 848 008 and talk the move through with Mark.
Allow 10–14 days door to door from collection. It is the longest road run we do in mainland Europe, and drivers’ hours rules limit how far a vehicle can travel in a day. A sole-use load going direct sits at the quicker end; a shared part-load waits for the scheduled departure, which is what keeps the cost down.
In practice, yes. The NIF is your Portuguese tax number and it is needed for almost everything, including the customs paperwork for your household goods. Apply for it early — ideally before you book the move — so it is not the thing holding up clearance.
Normally not, under the EU transfer-of-residence relief, which covers used household effects when you are moving your normal home. The usual conditions are that you have lived outside the EU for at least twelve months, have owned and used the goods for at least six months, and import them within twelve months of establishing residence. Alcohol, tobacco and vehicles sit outside it.
Yes. Many Algarve properties are at the end of lanes no full-size removal vehicle will get down, so we survey the access and, where needed, plan a smaller vehicle to shuttle the load from the main road. It is priced into the quote from the start rather than added on the day.
We can, but they are island moves that finish by sea rather than road, so we plan and quote them individually. Everything in this guide applies to mainland Portugal, from the Algarve to the northern border.
Call us for a free, no-obligation quote, or use our online form. Whether it is a shared part-load or a whole house, we have handled the route before and we will handle yours with care.