Serra de Monchique (published by Algarve Property Magazine Jan/Feb 2008)

Traffic lights have recently been sprinkled liberally where previously there were none along the main road between Portimao and the hillside town of Monchique.  They are not just any old traffic lights.  They aim to regulate speed at 50 kph through the villages rather than control road intersections – and they are powered by solar panels.  A pertinent sign of the times, you could say.

 This may be the last bastion in the Algarve of mule carts and moonshine aguardente, but things are changing in the Monchique hills, albeit very slowly.  For example, the Portuguese population in the area is declining as elder generations pass away and their off-spring move to the coast for easier jobs and better pay.  Conversely, a cosmopolitan range of foreigners are buying abandoned homes and trickling up into the hills in greater numbers than ever before.  There are probably fewer than 7,000 people living in the Monchique district; that´s down to mid-19^th century levels and less than half the number during the most populous years between the 1930s and 1960s.
 The Serra de Monchique is still the old Algarve, touched but not overtaken as elsewhere by modernity, tourism and spreading development.  Its robust old-fashionedness is the very thing that draws expatriates to visit and to settle.

It is the peace and quiet, the pervasiveness of the evergreen environment, the airy spaciousness, the friendliness of the people, the social simplicity and the slow pace of life, with or without traffic lights, that is so appealing.  Even the climate is milder and more equable than down by the coast, and it is not as cloudy or wet as the plain-dwellers sometimes make out.

 The Serra de Monchique is a fairly broad range of steep, wooded hills and valleys stretching from Sao Marcos de Serra to Aljezur across north of the Algarve and into the southern Alentejo.  Historically it formed a natural barrier between the peoples of the Algarve and the rest of Portugal.

Great swathes of the indigenous forests were felled in late medieval times for material to construct boats and buildings and provide fuel.  Chestnut, walnut and a few other deciduous species still grow alongside plantations of evergreen pines and cork oaks, but much of the area has been planted with fast-growing antipodean eucalyptus destined to become pulp and paper.

  The town of Monchique is small and unpretentious, a hillside cascade of white houses around a central church.  The villages east and west are few and insignificant, the hamlets many and hardly noticeable.   Large parts of the Serra are almost uninhabited.  The highest summits are not that high, with Foia peaking at 902 metres and Picota at 773.  There are no great extremes here – except opinion on whether it is a desirable area to live.

 For those who want beaches, golf courses, hypermarkets or nightlife on the doorstep, this is not a first choice location.  In fact, forget it!  The Serra de Monchique is for self-contained souls content to buy and dine out in typical local shops and restaurants, enjoy country pursuits and make only occasional forays down into the glitz and bustle of the towns and resorts below.

That´s not to say a home in the hills is akin to living on Mars.  There are good tarmac roads leading in and out of Monchique to the north, south, east and west.  You can be down onto the trans-Algarve A22 motorway just north of Portimao, traffic lights permitting, in 20 minutes.  It takes about the same time to drive over to the remote west coast, or in the opposite direction to the village of Sao Marcos de Serra next to the A2 Algarve-Lisbon motorway.

There are properties for sale scattered over the whole area and the choice is surprisingly wide, ranging from total ruins to magnificent modern homes. 

Ruins suitable only for demolishing and rebuilding are now scarce anywhere on the Algarve coastal plain or the so-called ´Barrocal` band between the coast and the hills.  Those that exist usually come with silly price tags or cannot be sold because they cannot be extracted from multiple ownership under Portugal´s laws of inheritance.  In the Serra de Monchique, however, many ruined properties are still available at reasonable prices.

Local estate agent Susana Barreira of First Reality has sold about 200 ruins and says it is a myth that they nearly always come with complications – not in the Monchique district anyway. She says that ruins and building plots in the hills have generally doubled in value, or even trebled in select places, over the last five years.

Every ruin can be demolished and rebuilt and the right to do this does not diminish with time.  “To make an investment now and build later secures the land at today´s prices,” says Susana  “I can´t tell you how many times we have heard the words “we wish we had bought a plot or ruin years ago”.  If you invest in the Algarve now, whatever you decide to do, you have an asset which is going up in value with all property prices and is far more profitable than cash on deposit and certainly without the risk of the stock market.”
Although there are always local planning restrictions on size and style when rebuilding, the Monchique municipal council has the reputation of being more tolerant and helpful  than most.  Still, there is no point in buying a ruin without being prepared to eventually go through all the proper design and construction stages under the guidance of qualified professionals.  Rule out, for example, dreams of a DIY log cabin that nicely blends in with the natural surroundings at little cost.   Wooden structures for habitation still require full planning permission the same as a conventional house.Even so, buyers need not feel out on a limb up in the hills away from the Algarve´s main urban centres. There are fully-licensed, professional estate agents, lawyers, architects, project managers, engineers and builders close at hand to help.  A total rebuild can usually be accomplished in 18 months from purchase and a major renovation in half that time.

The quicker though more costly option is to buy an existing good quality home.  Prices of these are influenced not only by size and condition but by the view.  The most desirable properties occupy prime sites on the south-facing slopes between Monchique and Marmelete below Foia, and in the vicinity of Alferce and Fornalha below Picota.  On clear days they look down over a broad stretch of distant shimmering sea.  On hazy days, layers of foothills fall away into the blue and purple yonder as in a Chinese painting.

   Monchique expatriates, who have seen what is happening on the mountain slopes outside places like Los Angeles, Vancouver and Cape Town, feel the Serra de Monchique may be on its way to becoming “ Upper Algarve”, a reference to more than just its geographical elevation.

 However, the Serra de Monchique is not yet deemed to be sufficiently posh to warrant prices as high as those being asked along the coast.  Up-market properties with three or four bedrooms are mostly in the 300,000 – 700,00 euros bracket, but you can pick up an old ruin for as little as 50,000 euros or a modern mansion for as much as 1.5 million euros or more.

Few expatriates who move into the hills move out again, except in dire personal circumstances.  Even the forest fires of 2003 ago failed to persuade residents to move elsewhere.  Since then, there have been no fires, preventative measures, public awareness and fire-fighting resources have been greatly improved. 

Of the future, there is talk – and that is all it is at present – of creating golf resorts in the hills.  That´s when some of the Monchique purists may start campaigning not just for a sprinkling of irritating traffic lights, but for stop and diversion signs galore.

 Monchique (published in Welcome magazine summer 2008)

The pace of life is slower in the Monchique hills, and the climate more friendly.

The EN266 road up to the town of Monchique follows tight bends through tall trees, most of them mimosas, which in early spring are smothered in yellow blossom.