A heat wave has invaded Portugal in recent days, highlighting how important it is to live in energy-efficient homes. And not only that: it has also shown how air conditioning can be a great ally to escape the hottest days of the summer. But is it easy to find a house for sale or rent with air conditioning? In Portugal, only 1 in 4 properties on the market have air conditioning, according to a study published by idealista, the real estate marketplace in Portugal.
After combing through more than 300,000 homes for sale and for rent in July 2022, the study concludes that Faro, in the Algarve, and Viseu are the areas where there are the most homes with air conditioning advertised (46% in both cities). And right after is Braga where 43% of properties on the market have air con, followed by Aveiro (35%), Castelo Branco (31%), Lisbon (27%), Santarém (24%), Leiria (22%), Porto (22%), Ponta Delgada (21%), Funchal (20%) and Coimbra (18%).
Although Portugal's inland Alentejo region is where people living in Portugal suffer most from heat waves and hot summers, the main city in the region, Beja, has only 16% of homes for sale or to rent with air conditioning. Évora and Portalegre are also among the cities that have the fewest houses for sale or rent with this system (9%) and (4%), the study shows.
There are also other Portuguese cities where the supply of homes equipped with air conditioning is equally scarce: Bragança (4%), Guarda (6%), Vila Real (10%), Setúbal (12%) and Viana do Castelo (12%).
Air-conditioned property in Portugal: differences between selling and renting
In the Portuguese housing stock the difference between air-conditioned houses for sale and for rent is not significant, with a 1% advantage for properties for sale. Of the properties advertised on idealista for sale, 24% have air conditioning installed, while 23% of rental properties have air conditioning.
There are however cities where the supply of homes for sale with air conditioning exceeds the number of those advertised for rent with this system. Around 12% of the houses for rent in Viseu have air conditioning, while 47% of the houses for sale have the system installed. The same happens in Faro (rental: 27%; sale: 47%), Braga (rental: 27%; sale: 43%), Coimbra (rental: 9%; sale: 19%) and Ponta Delgada (rental: 14%; sale: 21%).
On the other hand, there are some cities where the opposite trend is observed. 34% of the houses for rent in Funchal are equipped with an air conditioning system, while only 19% are for sale. In Viana do Castelo the situation is identical, there are more houses for rent with air conditioning (25%) than for sale (12%). The same happens in Vila Real (renting: 20%; selling: 9%), Santarém (renting: 29%; selling: 24%), Setúbal (renting: 16%; selling: 12%), Porto (renting: 24%; selling: 22%) and Lisbon (renting: 28%; selling: 27%).
In Beja, Bragança, Castelo Branco, Évora, Guarda, Leiria and Portalegre, none of the properties for rent have air conditioning.