Commercial real estate saw investment decline in Portugal and Europe throughout 2023. However, there was one sector that stood out positively: hotels. This is because in Europe, investment in hotels quickly began to show signs of recovery in the second half of the year. In Portugal, it even led commercial real estate investment.

The National Association of Property Owners (ANP) considered that the 30 measures announced by the Government for housing do not cover “truly important issues”, highlighting that regarding urban leasing “it gives the idea that there is a lack of knowledge of the matter”.

Difficulties in accessing housing in Portugal and Spain will continue to exist in the short term. This is because, according to Fitch estimates, increases in family income should be “practically equal” to the expected evolution of house prices for 2024 and 2025. In Portugal, the cost of housing could grow by up to 6% per year.

Access to housing remains difficult in Portugal. And in this context, some people are looking for cheaper homes in cities or towns far from the big urban centres, in order to make house prices compatible with family budgets.

The purchase of houses in Portugal has been cooling down, given the high costs of housing, along with high interest rates on loans and low purchasing power, which continue to be felt. And this cooling in demand for houses in the country has been reflected in prices. The National Statistics Institute (INE) reveals this Tuesday, April 23rd, that the set of homes sold in the final stretch of 2023 had a median cost of 1,619 euros per square meter (euros/m2), a value of 7, 9% higher compared to the same period last year. But compared to the previous quarter, house prices in Portugal fell 1.3%, a trend felt in 14 of the 24 most populous municipalities, Lisbon and Porto included.