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 good news is that there are at least 10 municipalities where you can buy a 100 square metre (m2) property for less than 30 thousand euros. So let's dive into the data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) to find out the cheapest places to buy property in Portugal in 2024.
Portugal house prices in 2023/2024
Looking at houses sold in Portugal throughout 2023, INE concluded that housing had an average cost of 1,611 euros per square metre (euros/m2), 2.0% higher than the year ending in the previous quarter and 8.6% higher than the 12 months ending in the same quarter last year, reads the bulletin published at the end of April 2024.
In 2023, "50 municipalities had an average price higher than the national value, mostly located in the Algarve sub-regions (14 out of 16 municipalities), Greater Lisbon (all 9 municipalities), the Setúbal Peninsula (8 out of 9 municipalities) and the Porto Metropolitan Area (7 out of 17 municipalities)," the institute also points out.
But the good news is that the majority of the 300 municipalities with available data (out of 308 municipalities) have much lower house prices, indicating that it is the high cost of housing in municipalities located in major urban centres, such as Lisbon, Porto and Faro, that has stimulated the increase in prices nationwide.
What are the cheapest towns to buy a house in Portugal?
It is in the interior of the country that the municipalities with the most affordable homes for sale are located. In Mêda, Guarda district, you can buy the cheapest houses in the country, with an average cost of 156 euros/m2 in 2023. This means you can buy a 100 square metre house for less than 16 thousand euros.
The municipality of Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo - also in the district of Guarda - had the second most affordable house price of all 300 municipalities with available data: 185 euros/m2. In third place is Tabuaço (Viseu district), where buying a house cost 226 euros/m2. It is therefore possible to buy a 100 m2 house in Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo for around 19 thousand euros and in Tabuaço for less than 23 thousand euros.
At the bottom of the list of the 10 cheapest municipalities to buy a house is Celorico da Beira, in Guarda, where the average square metre costs 295 euros, according to INE. In other words, in this municipality it is possible to buy a house to live in for less than 30 thousand euros.
10 cheapest towns to buy a house in Portugal
And where is it most expensive to buy a house in Portugal?
It's precisely in the large urban centres of Lisbon, Porto and Faro, where you'll find the most expensive municipalities in the country to buy property. The most expensive municipality of all is Lisbon, where houses were sold for a median price of 4,167 euros/m2 in the year ending December 2023. So a house was bought for a median value of 416,700 euros in 2023. Next is the municipality of Cascais, with a price of 3,976 euros/m2.
The list of the most expensive municipalities to buy a house in Portugal continues with three municipalities in the Faro district: Loulé, Lagos and Vila do Bispo, where house prices exceed 3,150 euros/m2. In other words, families who bought houses in these municipalities spent more than 315 thousand euros.
The district of Faro has the most municipalities in the ranking of the 10 most expensive municipalities to buy a house - a total of 6. The district of Lisbon is represented by 4. The municipality of Porto is the only one to represent the metropolis, appearing in eighth place, with the average price of houses sold at 2,866 euros/m2.
10 most expensive towns to buy a house in Portugal
House prices fall 1.3% in Portugal – Lisbon and Porto included
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 s