Why Hollywood Is Flocking to “The Hamptons of Europe”

Blame it on Trump overload. Or fire fatigue. Or even the price of dinner at Giorgio Baldi. Whatever the reason, a wave of Hollywood types — producers, power couples, a smattering of ex-network brass — have been selling off their stateside properties and decamping for a faraway land where the sunsets are always cinematic, the politics are blissfully calm and the property taxes on a four-bedroom oceanview home top out at a measly thousand bucks a year.

We’re talking Portugal, which, for a slew of reasons, suddenly finds itself playing host to a growing colony of Hollywood types. Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander are reported to have bought a home around Lisbon. Nicole Kidman recently applied for Portuguese residency, just after announcing her split from Keith Urban last month. Madonna, Scarlett Johansson, John Malkovich — they’ve all reportedly planted stakes in this sliver of Atlantic coastline just west of Spain. And clearly, more are coming.

“It’s our second day here and it’s fantastic!” gushes former NBC and Comcast boss Ted Harbert, calling from Comporta, where he and his wife are spending a month in a rental while the finishing touches are hammered into their four-bedroom dream house — which, yes, will cost him just 947 euros a year in property taxes. “The people here are so friendly, and it’s so beautiful. We visited a couple of times before, and I said to my wife, ‘What this country needs is a better head of marketing because it’s just fantastic.’ ”

Actually, the marketing already seems to be working — especially for the CostaTerra Golf and Ocean Club, a just-opened residential resort built by developer Mike Meldman (best known as the real estate mogul behind Discovery Land Company and, oh yeah, George Clooney’s Casamigos tequila partner). That’s where Harbert’s new home is located, and he’s already starting to run into some familiar faces. “Interestingly enough, my old friend Ben Silverman owns the lot two houses down from me,” he says. “The place is becoming a real hotspot. It’s like the Hamptons of Europe.”

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This story appeared in the Oct. 22 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.