Honking in town can cost €60, non-residents pay more for homes, and car parts are cheaper through a company
PSP fined drivers €60 for honking near Rossio, then admitted it was wrong. In town, the law allows the horn only in danger
On Sunday, 1 November, PSP officers near Rossio square in Lisbon stopped drivers who were honking in support of a housing protest and fined them €60 each. The next day a PSP spokesman, Sérgio Soares, said the drivers should not have been fined and that it would not happen again.
The rule itself is in Article 22 of the Highway Code (Código da Estrada): the horn must be sounded briefly and only in immediate danger. Outside towns, it may also be used to warn that you are overtaking, and on bends, at junctions and on hills with poor visibility. The fine is €60 to €300.
On Reddit many wrote that the rule is applied selectively: after football victories and election wins, whole convoys honk late into the night, and nobody gets fined. The author of a separate post asked for Article 22 to be enforced just as strictly at all times, including against political parties that honk after dark.
“Obviously they shouldn't have been fined. Does anyone get fined for honking after a football club wins, or after an election win?”
Translated from Portugueser/portugal03.11.2026
“I hope that from yesterday on, Article 22 of the Highway Code will always be applied as strictly as it was yesterday. I really do hope so… Including to political parties. I'm sick of hearing horns after sunset because that's when the mayor finally finished his party.”
Translated from Portugueser/portugal02.11.2026
In town, the rules do not allow honking in support, as a greeting or out of frustration: if you are stopped, the fine starts at €60.
A billboard at Lisbon airport urges foreigners to buy a home. On Reddit, people argue over how many homes foreigners buy
In r/portugal someone posted a photo of a billboard at the exit of Lisbon airport: an agency inviting new arrivals to buy a home. The author asked whether homes are being sold to foreigners because the Portuguese can no longer afford them. Many replied that the billboard has been there for years, and that in the Algarve the for-sale signs on building sites have long been in English only.
“That billboard must have been at the airport exit for about ten years.”
Translated from Portugueser/portugal03.11.2026
“It's been like this in the Algarve for years. Even on houses still being built, the for-sale signs are in English, and only in English: ‘buy your dream house’.”
Translated from Portugueser/portugal03.11.2026
The argument over how much housing goes to foreigners came down to figures. Some say non-residents buy less than 5% of homes, and about a third of them are Portuguese who have moved abroad. Others say that in 2025, when a record number of homes were sold, one in four was bought by a foreigner, most often a Brazilian. The figures differ because they count different things: a non-resident pays tax abroad, while a foreigner may live and work here.
“Funny disinformation campaign. Less than 5% of homes in Portugal are bought by non-residents (and about a third of them are Portuguese who have moved abroad).”
Translated from Portugueser/portugal03.11.2026
“In 2025 they literally broke the all-time record for the number of homes sold. One in four was sold to foreigners, the vast majority to Brazilians.”
Translated from Portugueser/portugal03.11.2026
Non-residents pay noticeably more. According to the latest INE data, buyers with a tax address abroad paid an average of €3,182 per square metre, and those living in Portugal €2,421; in Greater Lisbon the gap is 47%, in the Porto metropolitan area 37.5%. Some also blame estate agencies, saying they push prices up to cover their commission.
“Estate agencies are also doing a lot to drive prices up: they raise them to cover their commission.”
Translated from Portugueser/portugal03.11.2026
Limits on buying have already been proposed: in October the Porto Students' Federation (FAP) asked the political parties to temporarily ban non-residents from buying homes where prices are rising fastest.
Pingo Doce gave back the full price of toys on its card. Parents also wait for 50% off at Continente and check Vinted
In a chat for parents of babies, someone wrote on 3 November that Pingo Doce supermarkets were crediting the full amount spent on toys that day to the store card, to be spent the following week.
Others pointed out that Continente sometimes has 40–50% off toys at weekends, and Lego fans wait for it. One parent bought a big Sylvanian Families house in such a sale for €60 instead of €100 and a small one for €20 instead of €40, stocking up early on presents for all the winter holidays.
“I think Continente will also have 40 or 50% off toys at the weekend. On the Lego maniacs' forums everyone is already on standby”
Translated from Russianpequenos_PT03.11.2026
“I think the big house normally costs 100 (daylight robbery if you ask me, pretty as it is)), but during the Continente sale it coincided with another offer and I got it for 60. And the little house was 40, and I got it for 20 on another sale day, also at Continente, I think.”
Translated from Russianpequenos_PT04.11.2026
People also recommend Vinted: it sometimes has new toys in unopened boxes, but sets are often sold with pieces missing, so they are worth checking before you buy.
“I bought the bathroom set on Vinted; it was in an unopened box, new without tags. So that's a good hack too. But people often sell sets with some pieces missing, which I personally don't like :)))”
Translated from Russianpequenos_PT04.11.2026
Private buyers pay full price for car parts while companies get 15–30% off. The advice: register one at a virtual address
In a car owners' chat, someone complained that it is hard to repair your own car without a company: you have to shop around between the online stores Autodoc, Motointegrator and Centrauto and the dealers, bolts and small consumables are not sold retail, and a repair can be held up for weeks by a single part. One person waited two and a half weeks for a €3 connector with €20 delivery.
“No bolts sold retail. And they're consumables. Run to the dealer, order them. Filters and rubber seals — somewhere else again. Until it all comes together, the repair is stuck. I waited 2.5 weeks for one of the 2 connectors I needed to arrive.”
Translated from Russianautolife_pt04.11.2026
Others replied that a company or self-employed status (trabalhador independente) gets you an account with big dealers such as Caetano and MCoutinho: they give 15–30% off original parts and deliver every day almost for free. The chat reckons that about €800 a year for an accountant will pay for itself, if only in time saved.
“But with a company you get access to an account at, say, Caetano or MCoutinho: they give 15-30% off OEM and almost free daily deliveries — win”
Translated from Russianautolife_pt04.11.2026
“It's very likely that even if that €800 a year doesn't pay for itself in the price difference, the time saved will more than cover it.”
Translated from Russianautolife_pt04.11.2026
You can register a company at a rented flat, but you have to notify the landlord and get their consent: if the property is used for something other than its intended purpose, the landlord has the right to end the lease. That is why people advise a virtual address — in Portugal this is legal and costs about €60 a month.
“It's not really about risks — it's about the obligation to notify and the owner's right to end the contract if the premises are used for something other than their intended purpose”
Translated from Russianautolife_pt04.11.2026
Parents of one-year-olds put the tree in a playpen or decorate it for New Year, and scrub wall drawings with melamine sponges
In a chat for parents of babies, someone asked whether it is dangerous to stand a real Christmas tree on the floor when the child is one. People replied that it all depends on the child: one parent said their son could not be left with anything at that age that was not a toy — even with the blunt-ended whisk from a mixer he covered the parquet all over the flat in holes.
“It all depends on the child)) Ours is a hurricane: at one you couldn't leave anything on the floor (within reach) that wasn't a toy or was even slightly dangerous… I used to give him the whisk from the mixer, it has quite a blunt end, and he still managed to riddle the parquet all over the flat with holes”
Translated from Russianpequenos_PT04.11.2026
One parent plans to put an artificial tree in the playpen. A family with a son and cats used to weigh the tree down at the base with bags of cat litter; when the son was a year and four months old, they simply put it up on 1 December without decorations, and when it fell, they picked it up. They decorated it only on the 30th, and only with things that would not break.
“At 1 year 4 months we didn't bother with the litter any more. We just put up the tree without decorations on 1 December, and when it fell we picked it up, fished out the cats and the son, called the robot to vacuum and carried on. We decorated it on the 30th, nothing breakable, but by then the tree had stopped falling over.”
Translated from Russianpequenos_PT04.11.2026
The chat also discussed how to clean toddlers' drawings off walls. People recommend melamine sponges from Chinese shops and Pingo Doce, but these also take off the top layer of paint, so it is better to try a damp microfibre cloth or a cotton pad with alcohol first. The pink cleaning paste from Normal also gets praise.
“And they really do take off the top layer of paint. So it's better to try a damp microfibre cloth or a pad with alcohol first (freshly opened!).”
Translated from Russianpequenos_PT04.11.2026
