The three-coloured building above the pool at sunset, with the wooded valley beyond (architectural render)

Opening date to be announced

Five years in the Portuguese countryside, in a serviced apartment

Furnished, serviced apartments for people moving to Portugal on a D7 visa, offered as a five-year package. In the village of Silva Escura in central Portugal, forty minutes from the beaches of Aveiro and an hour and a quarter from Porto airport.

Made for: People moving to Portugal on a D7 visa
What: Furnished one-bedroom apartments, each with its own bathroom and kitchen
Length of stay: Five-year package (shorter stays by arrangement)
Where: Silva Escura, Sever do Vouga, central Portugal
Opening: Date to be announced
Nearest town: Sever do Vouga, 5 min by car
Nearest airport: Porto (OPO), about 1 hr 15 min by car
Nearest beach: Barra and Costa Nova, about 45 min by car

The apartments

The Senses Corner is a new building of serviced apartments on the edge of Silva Escura, a quiet village in the green hills of central Portugal. It is made for people moving to Portugal on the D7 visa, often retirees, who want to live here rather than visit: our main offer is a five-year package.

Each apartment has one bedroom, its own bathroom and its own kitchen. It comes furnished and looked after, so you can settle in without setting up a household. There is also a large shared common area for cooking and eating together, and the building faces west over the valley, with a shared pool and terraces.

If you would like to stay for a shorter period, we are happy to talk it through. Please get in touch.

The five-year package

One agreement covering five years in a furnished, serviced apartment
No need to buy property or set up a household from scratch
Built around the D7 visa: a two-year residence permit, renewable for three more, makes five years
The D7 application asks for proof of accommodation in Portugal; our agreement is intended to serve as that proof
Shorter stays can be discussed

Read how the D7 visa works

Details we will publish before opening

Exact sizes of each apartment
The price of the five-year package
Exactly what the service includes
The opening date

Questions in the meantime? Contact us.

Inside an apartment

Wood floors, natural materials and plenty of daylight. Every apartment is fully furnished, with a double bed, storage, a sitting area and a TV.

One bedroom
Private bathroom
Private kitchen
Fully furnished

Inside an apartment: a double bed, wooden furniture, a sitting area behind a slatted wooden screen, and tall windows

The layout

Seen from above: two neighbouring apartments, mirror images of each other. Each has a bedroom, a bathroom with a shower and toilet, a kitchen with a small dining table, and a sitting room.

View from above of two mirrored apartments, each with a bedroom, a tiled bathroom, a tiled kitchen and a sitting room

The shared common area

A large open space shared by everyone in the building: a big kitchen with an island, a long dining table, and a lounge with sofas, opening onto a covered wooden terrace. Somewhere to cook together, share a meal and get to know your neighbours.

Large shared kitchen
Long dining table
Lounge with sofas
Covered terrace

The shared common area: a lounge with sofas, a shelving wall, a long dining table and a large kitchen with an island, under a timber roof

The building

The lit terrace at dusk, with a pergola along the far end (architectural render) — The terrace in the evening

Images of the building and apartments are architectural renders, not photographs.

The D7 visa, explained

The D7 is Portugal’s residence visa for people who live on passive income, such as a pension, Social Security, rental income or investments. It is the visa most American retirees use to move to Portugal, and it is the visa our apartments are designed around.

Here is how it works, in plain terms. This is general information, not legal advice: requirements change, so always confirm with the Portuguese consulate before you apply.

Who qualifies

Citizens of countries outside the EU, including the United States.
You need a regular passive income of at least Portugal’s minimum wage: €920 a month in 2026.
Add 50% for a spouse or partner (€460 a month in 2026) and 30% for each dependent child.
You will usually also be asked to show savings, often around 12 months of that income, in a Portuguese bank account.
A clean criminal record.

What you will need

A passport valid well beyond your planned arrival
Proof of income: pension or Social Security statements, bank statements, investment or rental records
A Portuguese tax number (NIF) and a Portuguese bank account
Proof of accommodation in Portugal, such as a rental agreement
An FBI background check, with an apostille
Health insurance valid in Portugal
Passport photos and the national visa application form
Official Portuguese translations of documents where the consulate asks for them

The steps, in order

Get a NIF and a Portuguese bank account
Both can be arranged from the US, usually through a lawyer or a fiscal representative.
Gather your documents
Allow time for the FBI background check and apostilles; some documents must be recent when you apply.
Apply in the US
You apply through the Portuguese consulate that serves your state, usually via a VFS Global centre. You cannot apply from inside Portugal.
Receive the visa
A decision usually takes around 60 days. The visa is valid for four months and lets you travel to Portugal.
Attend your AIMA appointment in Portugal
AIMA is Portugal’s immigration agency. At the appointment they take your fingerprints and photo for your residence card.
Receive your residence card
The card is posted to your Portuguese address. Overall, the process typically takes six to nine months from application.

How long it lasts

The first residence permit lasts two years.
It can then be renewed for three more years, which makes five years in total, the same length as our package.
After five years of legal residence you can apply for permanent residence, which normally includes a basic Portuguese language test.
To keep the permit, you must not be away from Portugal for more than six months in a row, or eight months in total, during the first two years.

Where The Senses Corner fits in

The D7 application asks for proof of accommodation in Portugal. Our five-year agreement is intended to serve as that proof.
Five years with us lines up with the two-year permit plus the three-year renewal.
Moving here usually makes you a Portuguese tax resident, and US citizens still file US taxes. Speak to a tax adviser who knows both countries.

Check the official sources before you apply:

Many people use a Portuguese immigration lawyer to handle the NIF, bank account and application. The figures above are for 2026.

Photos

Click any photo to see it larger.

The area

A village in green hills, 40 minutes from the sea. Tap any line marked + to read more.

The Cabreia waterfall dropping through woodland into a boulder-strewn stream

The village

Silva Escura

Silva Escura means “dark wood”, and the name still fits: a granite village in pine, oak and chestnut on the hills above the Vouga river. The parish church of São João Baptista sits at its centre, and a short walk downhill the Rio Mau drops twenty-five metres into the pool at Cabreia.

Parish of Silva Escura e Dornelas
Since 2013 Silva Escura has shared a parish council with neighbouring Dornelas, one of the nine parishes of Sever do Vouga. The parish office stands by the church, and the marked walk down to the Cabreia waterfall starts from there.
About 1,400 people
The village counted around 1,400 residents at the 2021 census, close to 2,000 together with Dornelas. It is a scatter of granite hamlets, small farms and vegetable plots rather than a town; cafés, shops and the market are five minutes away in Sever do Vouga.
Ten minutes’ drive to the Vouga river
The Vouga river rises in the Serra da Lapa and runs about 150 km west to the sea at Aveiro. Below Sever do Vouga it winds through a deep, wooded valley, with river beaches such as Quinta do Barco for swimming in summer.

The arched stone railway bridge over the Vouga river, reflected in the still river

The municipality

Sever do Vouga

A small, green municipality strung along the Vouga river valley, and Portugal’s blueberry capital: the first plants came here in 1990, and the Feira Nacional do Mirtilo fills the town park every June. The old Vouga railway now runs through it as the Ecopista, a walking and cycling path over stone bridges and past old stations.

Blueberry fair each June
Blueberries were first planted here in 1990 and are now the backbone of the local economy: around 180 growers, many of them small family farms, work more than 150 hectares and pick upwards of 150 tonnes a year. With the Alentejo, this is one of Portugal’s two main growing regions. The Feira Nacional do Mirtilo, held since 2008, fills the town park for a weekend in late June with fresh fruit, jams, liqueurs, tarts and ice cream, alongside music and local food.
Ecopista do Vouga
The narrow-gauge Vouga railway has been turned into a walking and cycling path along its old route. From Sernada do Vouga it climbs upriver through Sever do Vouga for about 70 km, and the full Ecopista now runs some 120 km towards Viseu and Santa Comba Dão. It is gentle, almost traffic-free, and passes restored stations such as Paradela and Cedrim and the tall stone bridge at Poço de Santiago.
Waterfalls and river beaches
The hills drain into the Vouga river through steep side valleys, so there is falling water everywhere. Cabreia, at the edge of Silva Escura, is the best known; the Gresso walkways pass a chain of smaller falls. In summer, river beaches such as Quinta do Barco have lawns, cafés and calm water for swimming.

Art Nouveau and tiled façades along the central canal in Aveiro, with a moliceiro boat

The coast

Aveiro and the Ria

Forty minutes west the hills give way to the Ria de Aveiro, a lagoon some 45 km long behind a strip of dunes. Aveiro is built on its canals, worked by painted moliceiro boats, with Art Nouveau façades, a convent museum and ovos moles, the town’s egg-yolk sweet in wafer shells.

Canals and moliceiros
Aveiro’s canals were dug to bring salt, seaweed and fish into the town from the lagoon. The moliceiros, long boats with high, painted prows, were built to gather moliço, the seaweed once used as fertiliser. Today they take visitors on 45-minute trips from the Rossio.
Salt pans
Salt has been made on the Ria since at least the tenth century, and was once the town’s fortune. Most of the pans have gone, but a few are still worked by hand in summer, including the Troncalhada eco-museum near the centre, where you can walk out between the pans.
Atlantic beaches
A long strip of dunes divides the Ria from the ocean, with beach along its whole length: Barra under the lighthouse, Costa Nova with its striped houses, Vagueira to the south, Torreira and São Jacinto to the north. Wide sand, cold Atlantic water and good surf, 45 minutes to an hour from the house.

The Ria de Aveiro

The lagoon and coast around Aveiro: canals, salt pans, beaches and dunes.

A moliceiro full of passengers heading down Aveiro’s central canal, with painted boats moored along the quay — The canals
Aveiro’s central canal and its branches cut through the old town. Moliceiros, once used to gather seaweed, now take you round in about 45 minutes, under bridges and past the Art Nouveau fronts of the Rossio.

A wooden walkway crossing the shallow salt pans of the Ria de Aveiro, backlit by the sun — The salt pans
Salt has been raked from the Ria for centuries. At the Troncalhada salt pan, an eco-museum a short walk from the centre, you can see it still worked by hand in summer and walk out between the pans.

A wide, empty Atlantic beach with breaking waves and the Barra lighthouse in the haze — The beaches
Barra, under Portugal’s tallest lighthouse; Costa Nova, with its candy-striped palheiros; and further south Vagueira. Wide Atlantic sand, cold water and good surf.

A boardwalk running between grassy dunes towards the sea — The dunes
Across the mouth of the Ria, the São Jacinto Dunes Nature Reserve keeps 700 hectares of wild dune and pine between lagoon and sea, with boardwalk trails. A ferry crosses from Forte da Barra.

Getting here

Driving times and distances from Silva Escura. For flights from the US, see Practical information.

Driving times from Silva Escura
To	By car	Distance
Aveiro	40 min	43 km (27 miles)
Porto airport	1 hr 15 min	80 km (50 miles)
Porto city	1 hr	62 km (39 miles)
Coimbra	1 hr 10 min	88 km (55 miles)
Lisbon	3 hr 15 min	280 km (174 miles)

The pin marks Silva Escura. Open a larger map

Things to do nearby

Times are from the centre of Silva Escura and rounded. Walking times are shown where the walk is a reasonable one.

Cabreia waterfall

Silva Escura

The Rio Mau falls about 25 metres into a cold, clear pool, with a picnic park and shaded paths alongside.

By car:: 1 km (0.6 miles) · 2 min
On foot:: 1 km (0.6 miles) · 15 min

Poço de Santiago bridge

Pessegueiro do Vouga

A tall stone railway bridge of 1913 striding across the Vouga river, now part of the Ecopista and the best view in the valley.

By car:: 11 km (6.8 miles) · 12 min

Aveiro canals and moliceiros

Aveiro

Boat trips on painted moliceiros through the city’s canals, starting by the Rossio and the old fish market.

By car:: 43 km (27 miles) · 40 min

Walking distance

Cabreia waterfall
Silva Escura
The Rio Mau falls about 25 metres into a cold, clear pool, with a picnic park and shaded paths alongside.
By car:
1 km (0.6 miles) · 2 min
On foot:
1 km (0.6 miles) · 15 min
Braçal mines
Sever do Vouga
Ruins of the lead and silver mines that worked these hills from the 1830s to 1970, now a park on a marked trail from Cabreia.
By car:
5 km (3.1 miles) · 15 min
On foot:
4 km (2.5 miles) · 55 min
Sever do Vouga town
Sever do Vouga
Cafés, the market, the town park where the blueberry fair runs in June, and the municipal museum.
By car:
5 km (3.1 miles) · 6 min
On foot:
4 km (2.5 miles) · 55 min