House rents in Portugal continue to rise, at a time when supply is not keeping up with the dynamic demand. However, looking at the national landscape, there are very different realities. Most municipalities actually have house rents below the national average, which stood at €7.60 per square metre (€/m²) in the last year ending in June. And there are even 10 municipalities with house rents below €3/m², making them the cheapest in the country.
“In the first half of 2024 (last 12 months), 39 municipalities recorded rents above the national average (€7.60/m²),” highlights the INE in the bulletin published at the end of September. This means that the vast majority of the 215 municipalities with available data – out of a total of 308 municipalities in the country – have house rents below the national average.
There are also 106 municipalities where houses were rented for less than €5/m². And of these, there are still 56 municipalities with median rents below €4/m². In other words, a 100-square-metre (m²) home would have been rented for less than €500 per month in these locations.
What are the 10 cheapest places to rent a house in Portugal?
You need to travel to the interior of the country to find the 10 cheapest municipalities for renting a house. These are the only municipalities in the country where houses were rented for a median price of less than €3/m².
The municipality of Vila Flor, in the district of Bragança, has the cheapest house rents of all: €2.28/m² in the last 12 months ending in June. Next is Vila Nova de Foz Côa, in Guarda (€2.35/m²), and Sátão, in the district of Viseu (€2.66/m²). In these three municipalities, rental contracts were closed for less than €270 per month (median).
It was also possible to rent a 100 m² house for less than €300 per month in Gouveia, Valpaços, Moimenta da Beira, and Borba, for example, according to INE data.
Where is renting property most expensive in Portugal?
At the opposite end of the table are the municipalities with the highest house rents in the country, with Lisbon topping the list (€15.63/m²). In the Portuguese capital, a 100 m² house was rented for a median cost of €1,563 during this period.
The second municipality with the highest house rents is Cascais (€14.87/m²). Following closely are Oeiras (€13.46/m²) and Porto (€12.21/m²). Renting a 100 m² house in these municipalities had a median cost of over €1,200 per month.
It is notable that most of the top 10 most expensive municipalities for renting a house are located in Greater Lisbon. The only exceptions are Porto, Matosinhos, and Funchal.
“The territorial pattern of rents per m² for new rental contracts by municipality highlighted, with values higher than the national average, all municipalities in Greater Lisbon and the Setúbal Peninsula, the Algarve (10 out of 15 with available data), and the Porto Metropolitan Area (5 out of 17),” reads the document released by INE.
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