"We negotiated our Algarve apartment from €115k to €80k"
In Part Two of our series catching up with buyers from A Place in the Sun: Winter Sun on TV, Liz Rowlinson talks to a couple who snapped up a bargain on the Algarve.
Portuguese-born driving instructor Hilario Ribeiro and teaching assistant Jackie McGilvray from Chelmsford in Essex were seeking a bolthole in the Eastern Algarve for around €80,000.
In programme 12, Sara Damergi helped them put in an offer for a property but they didn't end up buying it, reports Jackie, 54.
"The property we offered on turned out to have planning issues so we played it safe and let it go. However Hilario headed back out to the Eastern Algarve in December (2013) to produce a new shortlist of properties for me to look at.
When the school term finished I headed out and we both agreed on a one-bed first floor apartment in Altura, only 200 metres from the first property we viewed on the programme, and near the beach. It was fully furnished and we negotiated it down from €115k to €80k and completed the sale very quickly. We've now been out four times and simply love going there and doing as little as possible."
(find Hilario at chelmsford-driving-school.com)