The UK's love affair with holidays in Portugal - particularly the breezy, sun-drenched Algarve, spans back decades.We enjoy the pristine golf courses, the beautiful beaches backed by golden-hued cliffs and the custard tarts for breakfast - and then we come home and dream about when we can visit again. However, for an increasing number of Brits, Portugal has packaged up the proposition of a permanent life there so well - including tax breaks, a low cost of living and affordable property - that they've ditched life in the UK and decamped to the Iberian Peninsula for good.According to data released by Portugal’s immigration authority, Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo (AIMA), the number of expats seeking a new life on Portuguese soil has tripled in a decade, with nearly 50,000 thought to now be residing permanently in the country. One of those recent arrivals is Rhys Poulton, 31, who grew up in the small Welsh village of Llangennith and graduated from Swansea University in 2017 with a first-class honours maths degree. A love of surfing initially brought Rhys and wife Ellie, 31, who's expecting the couple's second child, to Portugal on holiday in 2016 to stay with Ellie's sister who lives here... but the country's laid back lifestyle and sunny weather quickly got under their skin and they moved over between the first and second wave of Covid in 2020. Lagos in the Algarve; Welshman Rhys Poulton and his wife Ellie moved to Portugal's south in 2020 spurred on by sun and opportunities The couple had their first child, Billy, pictured, and have a second one on the way - and say they love the 'slow pace' of life on the AlgarveThe creative says he and Ellie, who has an economics degree, quickly realised there were big commercial opportunities in his field of work as a photographer and videographer. Rhys tells the Daily Mail: 'I really wanted to find somewhere that I could combine surfing along with an opportunity in business. 'Don't get me wrong, there's photography opportunities in the UK, but the opportunity to shoot somewhere that's beautiful and sunny around 80 per cent of the time was quite exciting.'He says he was initially worried about the country's average salary being lower than what UK workers earn - but says the low cost of living, where a beer at the weekend might cost you just a euro, meant it suddenly seemed possible. The couple bought a fisherman's house three years ago, and have since had their first child, Billy, here, who now has a Portuguese passport. Rhys's parents have also moved to the country and they now have a strong family support network around them. Portugal's property prices are on the rise but there's still favourable tax breaks for British expats The beer is still very cheap in many places, says Rhys, with the average price of a pastel de nata (custard tart) around 80 pence - compared to around £3 in the UK'My parents are on a D7 visa and they're loving life here. They're close to us - I joke that we can't get rid of them,' he says. 'It's almost like you're home from home when they're around. But they do go back to Wales a lot more than I do, which is about once a year.'He's honest about how long it took to settle in, saying while there's lots of British accents on the Algarve, getting a group of friends took time. 'The place was ten out of ten from the get-go but I'm a big people person and, for the first two years, I didn't really have a big group of friends - but after we hit that 18-month mark, two-year mark, I found a couple of pockets of friends through Portuguese lessons and I've met some incredible people.'Comparing the cost of day-to-day living in Portugal to the UK, Rhys says: 'I'd say it's at least a third cheaper, maybe even close to half. Rhys, his wife Ellie and their son Billy on the beach 'People don't want a Britain mark II': Paul Stannard runs Portugal Pathways, which helps guide British expats through the various visas available to them'You can't actually spend money as easily. You go shopping and you're not presented with a million cereals, there's probably five.'And it's not as convenient to get really expensive things. Amazon next day delivery in the UK is standard now, there's not that type of thing here, you have to wait a bit more, you have to earn it.'The pace of life is much slower too, something that appeals to Rhys - and brings opportunities for expats. He says since setting up his business pictureit360, a video production company, he's been inundated with opportunities. 'The Portuguese are such relaxed people, they don't live to work. You'll see them at 10 or 11 in the morning with a small beer in their hand, not because they're alcoholics - far from it - but they just enjoy living their life, and Brits come in, and they're 1,000 miles an hour, and they take up a lot of the business, because they're so forward-thinking and so fast.' Another expat, Paul Stannard runs Portugal Pathways, a company that helps foreigners who want to start a new life in the country navigate the visa and tax systems. Stannard tells the Daily Mail those moving from the UK are 'not looking for Britain mark II'. Instead, he says: 'They're looking for culture, freedom and optimism,' recounting how he recently stopped with a client at a cafe in a village on the country's Silver Coast and was given a masterclass in how the Portuguese operate.'We stopped to have a coffee because we'd been on a long drive. The staff spoke English and it was seven euros (around £6) for a coffee, cheese and ham croissant and a pastel de nata. It was a lovely coffee and as we were coming out, the two young women working there chased us with two euros' change - it was two for one on pastries - so it only cost five euros (£4.30).'He adds: 'I can't see that happening in the UK. It feels real in Portugal, it's not Dubai. 'You can work, play, have wonderful food and a low cost of living, feel safe and engaged. In the centre of Lisbon, if you ask somebody for directions, they're so proud of their country, they won't just tell you the way, they'll say: "Come with me, I'll take you there. I'll show you." They will literally walk you to where you're going.' And young British talent is supported, Stannard says. The country currently allows under 35s who aren't dependents to access a progressive ten-year tax exemption on income from employment or self-employment. He says it has big appeal for Gen-Zers with '600 beaches, 300 days of sunshine and a Mediterranean-style diet'.'It's a very healthy lifestyle, it's a very outdoor lifestyle,' Stannard adds.'There's a sense of hope and optimism here, that you don't necessarily feel in the UK. Portugal is on the western tip of Europe. It's not been involved in really any major global wars for centuries - I had some Americans say to me the other week that it feels like California in the 1920s. It's full of opportunity.'