Homes listed 17% above sale prices, pregnant women get flu jabs at their health centre, how to keep babies warm in winter
Homes are listed 17% above their sale price, a Reddit user calculates. Others say homes in their area sell instantly
In r/portugal someone posted a calculation: resale homes, that is, flats and houses that have already been lived in, are listed on average 17% above what they eventually sell for. The author asked whether the market is overheated or whether owners are simply in no hurry to sell and set a high price to leave room for haggling.
Many questioned the calculation, saying it compares different things: homes that have sold with homes on the market now. Overpriced homes don’t sell, so they stay on the property websites and push up the average asking price. Last year’s sales are also compared with today’s listings, even though prices have risen since. On top of that, the deed of sale (escritura) does not always show the real price: part of the money, people say, is handed over “under the table” to reduce IMT, the tax on buying a home.
“Part of the difference can be explained by comparing ‘sold homes’ with ‘homes for sale’: obviously, homes with an absurdly high price, which is exactly why they don’t sell, push up the average price of ‘homes for sale’.”
Translated from Portugueser/portugal03.11.2026
“And how many homes are sold at the deed price plus a few thousand under the table to dodge taxes? I doubt the gap between the asking price and the final price is that big.”
Translated from Portugueser/portugal03.11.2026
Others say that where they live there is no time to haggle: homes are snapped up as soon as they are listed, and even garages in blocks of flats are being converted into studios (T0) that are let straight away. On one thing they agree: a national average says little about a particular flat, and how much you can knock off the price depends on how many buyers are after it.
“Nobody pays? In my area, the moment something comes up for sale it disappears — it blows my mind. They’ve even started converting the garages of blocks of flats into T0s, and those get rented straight away — that’s how desperate people are to find four walls.”
Translated from Portugueser/portugal03.11.2026
Pregnant women get free flu jabs at their own health centre, while pharmacies and private clinics have almost no vaccine
In the “Pregnancy and Childbirth in Portugal” chat, someone asked whether a pregnant woman can get a flu jab only at her own health centre (centro de saúde, a state clinic) or at any of them. The answer: pregnant women get it free at their own centre, and one expectant mother had the jab there the same day. Another rang about forty places and found not a single dose: she was told that only people over 65 are being vaccinated. Private clinics have none either, people write: CUF (a chain of private hospitals) vaccinated everyone last year, but this year it has no vaccine. The doses, the chat reckons, went first to health centres and older people. According to the DGS, the Directorate-General of Health, more than 1.6 million people have been vaccinated since the campaign began (Notícias ao Minuto).
“I had it done today at my own saúde, didn’t ask anywhere else, since it’s free for pregnant women.”
Translated from Russianberemennost_portugal04.11.2026
“I must have rung about 40 places today, and there are none anywhere. They said that in Portugal you can’t find them in pharmacies, and only people 65+ can get vaccinated.”
Translated from Russianberemennost_portugal04.11.2026
If your pregnancy is not being monitored at the health centre, bring your latest screening results and your pregnancy record (boletim de saúde da grávida) to the jab: without them, the chat says, you won’t get it.
“If you’re not having your pregnancy followed at the saúde, bring your latest screening and your pregnancy booklet with you to the vaccination. They won’t do it without them.”
Translated from Russianberemennost_portugal04.11.2026
Sometimes the reception desk turns people away. One expectant mother was told that without a residence permit card the jab was only available for a fee, but at her doctor’s appointment she was given a certificate of pregnancy and got the jab free. Another was refused help until she put away her translation app and spoke Portuguese. The chat’s advice: go back with your husband or someone who speaks Portuguese, and don’t leave without the jab.
“They told me I wasn’t legal — my residence permit hadn’t come through yet back then — and that I wasn’t entitled to it and could only get it for a fee. But I went to my appointment, they gave me a pregnancy certificate there, and it all became free.”
Translated from Russianberemennost_portugal04.11.2026
“Go with your husband. Here, among the older generation, men sometimes carry more authority.”
Translated from Russianberemennost_portugal04.11.2026
Bedrooms can drop to 9 °C in winter: mums dress babies in bodysuits, fleece-lined trousers and socks, and run heaters
In a chat for mums of babies under two, someone asked how to dress a five-to-six-month-old at home in winter: their flat is usually 17–18 °C. Mums whose children spent last winter in Portugal replied.
One mum writes that her living room was never warmer than 18 °C, and the bedroom dropped to 14 °C without a heater. During the day her son wore a long-sleeved bodysuit and fleece-lined trousers, with socks added towards evening; at night he wore a long-sleeved top and a sleeping bag. Before bed they aired the bedroom and ran the heater for about 30 minutes, then set it on a timer for the night. Another mum, who has tiled floors, advises putting socks on anyway: you’ll know the child is cold when their nose starts running.
“In the living room it could be 18 °C at most, in the bedroom sometimes 14 if we didn’t switch the heater on. But before bed we aired it out well and then put the heater on medium-low for about 30 minutes.”
Translated from Russianpequenos_PT04.11.2026
“17–18 is quite cold; if you have tiled floors I’d still put little socks on. And children are different — you’ll know your child is cold when the snot starts running.”
Translated from Russianpequenos_PT04.11.2026
Worse than the cold, people write, is the damp: clothes in the wardrobe get damp even with a dehumidifier and have to be warmed before they go on. In a third family’s bedroom the temperature fell to 9 °C last winter: the heater ran round the clock, they warmed the bathroom before bathtime, and dressed the child in a cotton sleepsuit (an all-in-one with closed feet), a fleece one on top, and thick socks.
“Clothes in the wardrobe and even in the room got damp, even with dehumidifiers, and that made them cold. We had to warm his clothes in advance.”
Translated from Russianpequenos_PT04.11.2026
Kazakh bank Freedom adds 2.10% when the card has no account in the payment currency; with one, no fee but a worse rate
In a chat about foreign cards for non-residents, someone asked which is cheaper when paying in Turkish lira with a Kazakh Freedom card: paying from a dollar account or opening a lira account. The answer applies equally to anyone paying in euros with this card.
If the card has no account in the currency of the purchase, the money is converted at the payment system’s rate (Visa or Mastercard), and on top of that Freedom now charges a 2.10% surcharge on all cards (the chat calls it OIF). If an account in that currency is linked, the bank’s own internal rate is used: it is worse than the payment system’s rate, but there is no surcharge. Whether you convert manually in the app or automatically when paying, the rate is the same.
“Now that Freedom has brought in a 2.10% OIF on all cards, in-bank conversion works out cheaper, because OIF doesn’t apply in that case.”
Translated from Russianrefugecard04.11.2026
In the end, people write, it comes out about the same, though for lira the bank’s internal rate is currently slightly better. New cards come with only tenge and dollar accounts by default; other currencies can be added and removed in the app.
“If the card has no account linked in the payment currency, conversion is at the payment system’s rate (+OIF). If an account in that currency is linked, it’s at the in-bank rate, which is worse than the payment system’s rate but without OIF. Because Freedom’s OIF is so high, it ends up roughly the same either way. With lira, right now the in-bank rate works out slightly better.”
Translated from Russianrefugecard04.11.2026
Couples planning a pregnancy are advised to take a genetic test in Spain, where whole-genome sequencing needs no referral
In the “Pregnancy and Childbirth in Portugal” chat, a woman planning a pregnancy asked where she and her partner could take a couple’s genetic test: it shows whether both partners carry the same faulty gene, which could mean their child is born with a disease. In Portugal, she writes, it is hard to get such a test, or even to work out which one to choose. She adds that it is not compulsory for pregnant women, and there is no need to worry if you haven’t had it.
She was advised not to push for a referral in Portugal, but to book a consultation with a geneticist at a Spanish laboratory and take the test in Spain. One woman who replied had done just that: in Turkey she had WES, an analysis of the part of the DNA that contains the genes, and in Spain WGS, the whole genome; no referral, she says, is needed for WGS. But if you need a doctor to interpret the results, you book a consultation with a geneticist and take a 2,000-gene test or WES.
“The simplest thing is to book a geneticist consultation with a Spanish laboratory and take the test in Spain. I’ve already done WES on 22,000 genes in Turkey and WGS of the whole genome in Spain.”
Translated from Russianberemennost_portugal04.11.2026
“In Spain we did WGS, you don’t need a referral for it. WGS looks at all of the DNA, practically all the genes, while WES covers only 1–2% of the DNA.”
Translated from Russianberemennost_portugal04.11.2026
“When you need a clinical interpretation, you consult a geneticist and test for 2,000 genes or WES.”
Translated from Russianberemennost_portugal04.11.2026
Others warned that ready-made panels don’t include every gene — in one family the gene they needed, RB1, wasn’t on them — and that finding a fault in both partners leaves a couple with a hard choice. The chat advises deciding what to do with the result together with a geneticist.
