In late 2024, my wife Sayuri and I paid €410,000 for a 5,000-square-foot historic villa just outside the town of Caminha in northern Portugal.
Recently, a home on the same hillside—one I consider a step below ours—listed for just under €1 million.
Today, I want to give you a video tour of the villa. You’ll find it below.
But I don’t want to simply share a house tour. Read on and I’ll tell you how we ended up buying in Caminha…why I figure our home would already sell for more than twice what we paid…and where my team and I are hunting for the next opportunities like these…
Take a tour of the historic villa my wife Sayuri and I bought in Caminha, northern Portugal, in late 2024. We got it for around $90 per square foot. I figure it’s worth more than double what we paid already. Click to watch…
Caminha was never part of the plan.
In the summer of 2023, I was on a scouting trip taking me across northern Spain and down to my home on Portugal’s Silver Coast. I needed somewhere to stop for the night. Caminha was convenient. That’s the only reason I booked.
Then I saw the town…
Caminha sits on the Minho River, with Spain just across the water. It has a beautiful Old Town, a bucolic countryside of mountains, rivers, forests, and fields…and stunning Atlantic beaches minutes from the town center.
And it felt undiscovered. The few North Americans I met were Portuguese diaspora, switching between Portuguese and English mid-sentence.
I stayed at Villa Idalina, a grand house built at the turn of the 20th century from the proceeds of colonial ventures in Brazil. The food and the rooms were so good, I thought I’d misread the rate. It was under $150 a night. In Cabo or California, an experience like that would cost you $1,500.
The incredible value extended to the real estate…
Looking at Caminha listings was like stepping into a time machine. Apartments in the €100,000s. Historic homes in the old town in the €200,000s. Villas overlooking the river from €350,000 to €500,000.
I knew I’d found somewhere special…somewhere that would be discovered as people looked beyond Lisbon, Porto, and the Algarve…
So I told members of my Real Estate Trend Alert (RETA) group. And my team and I kept going back.
I lost count of my own scouting trips. My scout Ciaran Madden went twice in seven months. My senior scout Margaret Summerfield put boots on the ground too. Our videographer Alan Kennedy filmed it for members. We talked to brokers, lawyers, bankers…
Everything we found confirmed my first impression.
I ranked Caminha No. 2 on the RETA Index of the best places in the world to buy real estate for 2024. This is our largest research project of the year.
In 2025, Caminha took the top spot.
By then, I’d put my own money in.
The home Sayuri and I bought sits on a hillside above the village of Seixas, minutes from the center of Caminha. It looks out over the Minho to Spain.
The bridge is so close, I can be on the Spanish side in under 15 minutes.
For nine years before we bought it, the house had been a Spanish couple’s labor of love. Their restoration was meticulous. It came to us move-in ready…still furnished with original pieces that came over from Brazil with the first owners in the late 1800s.
In dollar terms, our purchase price of €410,000 worked out at around $90 per square foot.
Since buying it, we’ve made significant cosmetic changes. New bathrooms. A modern kitchen. Making it our own, as I share in the tour video.
Since we bought, Caminha has changed faster than even I expected.
When I first wrote about it, there were five great, inexpensive homes for every buyer. Now that has flipped. Buyers have found Caminha. So have tourists.
This summer, we rented our home out for the first time. It stayed full through August at $3,000 a week. That one month covered almost our entire mortgage for the year.
We won’t rent it out again, though. It’s more of a home to us now than a rental. But I do plan to use it for home swaps, as a way to unlock stays in other properties around the world.
But the point is, we have options because we bought ahead of demand.
I know other RETA members have bought in Caminha since I started recommending the town. Few things give me greater pride than having brought an opportunity like this to members.
And here’s the thing…
If you feel like you missed the boat, don’t.
Yes, Caminha is being discovered. And prices have risen. Villas like mine are now in short supply. But there’s still a window to buy in here ahead of the people who will come later.
In this recent YouTube video, I highlighted a fixer-upper in Caminha listing for under €190,000.
And my team and I never stop scouting. Never stop looking for the “next places.”
The next Caminhas.
Here’s what’s lined up…
My scout Ciaran is just back from Sicily and hasn’t stopped raving about a UNESCO World Heritage town with incredible history, world-class dining, and stunning beaches a short drive away.
From a port nearby, you can even get the ferry to Malta’s capital, Valletta, from €50 return.
And you can own something that’s almost move-in ready in this town from under €70,000.
Ciaran’s writing up a report with the full details for RETA members.
I’m about to travel…
I have word of a potential off-market deal in Uruguay. So my flights are booked. I’ll spend five days on the ground. More on this very soon…
Before that, I’ll stop in Panama City. My timing is deliberate. I’ll be there right before the local retail launch of Ipanema…the landmark three-tower development on the last prime waterfront land by Costa del Este, where RETA members got in first.
Word of the deal is out among the local brokers. And I’m told they are going nuts.
Later in the year, it’s on to Morocco. Quietly, it’s become a major hub for manufacturing, finance, and tourism. All just a short hop from Europe. I think there could be a big opportunity there…
Then there’s Okinawa, in Japan. White-sand beaches. Extraordinary food. And beach homes from around $100,000. I’m planning to be there before the end of the year.
My scout Eoin Bassett has sent me his plans for a trip into the Slovenian mountains, and for a look at one of the most interesting corners of France for property hunting.
We’re looking to the “next places” in Portugal too…
The Azores…Madeira…parts of the north near Caminha where demand could go next…
And there’s the Galicia region of Spain just across the border.
This is why my RETA club exists.
To go…see…and get there ahead.
More soon…
Wishing you good real estate investing,
P.S. Don’t forget to subscribe to my channel here so you never miss an episode of The Ronan McMahon Report.
