Famous Belarusian bloggers told how they bought a house in Portugal. They had to sell their dream home in Belarus
Previously, Vadim and Alesya Klyuchniki were building their dream home near Minsk according to their own design. However, in 2021, the family was forced to leave Belarus. After changing 22 places of residence in almost five years of emigration, the bloggers finally acquired their own property in Portugal.
Alesya and Vadim Klyuchniki in their yard in Portugal. Video screenshot: VadimKey / YouTube
The history of the popular YouTube channel "Vadim Key" began with a large-scale project KeyDOM — a modern house with large windows near the forest, which the couple built according to their own design. In May 2020, the family moved there, but happiness was short-lived. After Vadim's brief imprisonment in May 2021 for participating in the 2020 protests, the Klyuchniki family left the country.
During their years of travel, the family managed to live in Montenegro, Poland, Norway, and Germany. It was in Germany, as Vadim claims, that they made the difficult decision to sell their house in Belarus to put down roots in a new place. The choice fell on Porto, Portugal.
The bloggers set four criteria for themselves: the house must be detached (no townhouses), have its own plot of land, be located near Porto in a good promising location, and have potential for renovation.
In a new episode, the couple talked in more detail about the purchase. When searching for a house, they encountered peculiarities of the local market: often a beautiful house could stand on a street where neighboring buildings were complete ruins. In addition, 70-80s townhouses of 300-400 square meters scared them with strange layouts, where most of the area was occupied by endless corridors.
As a result, the bloggers settled on a property that many buyers simply ignored due to poor photos in the advertisement. It turned out to be a "Quinta" — a traditional Portuguese estate. At the same time, it is located within the city limits.
Vadim near his house in Portugal. Video screenshot: VadimKey / YouTube
On 15 ares of land (approx. 1500 sq. m) there is a house with a total area of 240 square meters (two floors of 120 sq. m each), a separate garage, and a small gardener's house of about 50 sq. m.
Despite the fact that the building requires serious repairs, Alesya notes that she immediately saw a future cozy home in the old house on the overgrown plot.
The garden made a special impression on the new owners. Lemons, avocados, tangerines, and huge persimmon trees grow on the plot. But the main surprise was a magnolia, which Alesya dreamed of back in Minsk.
The bloggers invited a professional engineer to view the house, who checked the house for "fundamental wounds" that cannot be fixed. The specialist's verdict was positive: the house is built conscientiously, with quality materials, and has no serious structural problems.
The process of acquiring real estate in Portugal
The process of acquiring real estate in Portugal differs significantly from the Belarusian one and consists of several stages.
Once the house is chosen, a contract is concluded, according to which the buyer makes a deposit — in the case of the Klyuchniki family, this was 20% of the cost.
The money for the purchase is transferred not directly to the seller, but to a special account of a lawyer who acts as a guarantor. It is the lawyer who issues a physical bank check, which is handed over at the moment of signing the final agreement.
According to the bloggers, the final deal at the notary's office was postponed several times; once it fell through due to a nationwide strike by the tax service.
There were also curiosities: after signing the papers, Vadim and Alesya accidentally drove away with the keys, forgetting to hand over the bank check to the seller. They had to urgently return.
The gardener's house, which is located on the plot with the main house. Video screenshot: VadimKey / YouTube
What they will do with the house next
The bloggers emphasize that they are not going to restore the house in a historical style. It will be a modern home. For the family, this purchase became a symbol of the end of a long period of uncertainty.
"This house is like our life. A bit of a ruin. It's such a therapeutic effect — to make something cool out of these ruins. As if giving yourself a chance for something new. Not from a blank slate, but by correcting some wounds, flaws. I'm sure we will arrive at some cool option. (...) When I came here, I felt that I had ground under my feet again. As if you're standing on your own land again," Alesya says in the video.
Vadim adds: "This is not an attempt to get something back that was lost, to bring back the past or to make it as it was before. No, we want to build something new. We are already different, time has changed, the children have grown up. (...) We don't want to live in the past. We want to create something now and enjoy it."
Ahead for the Klyuchniki family is a major construction project, which they plan to detail on their channel, which has grown sevenfold during their emigration and now has over 740,000 subscribers.
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