Where did foreigners buy the most houses in Portugal in 2023?

All regions saw an increase in purchases by foreigners, both in number and value. But there are some highlights, according to the Portuguese National Statistics Institute (INE).

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Editorial Team

3 April 2024, 10:00

Last year, all Portuguese regions saw an increase in the contribution of foreign buyers to house purchases, both in terms of the number and value of their total housing sales. But one region stood out in terms of investment by buyers with tax residency outside Portugal: the Algarve.

"Housing purchases by buyers with a tax residence outside Portugal in 2023 were mainly located in the Algarve (29.9 per cent), followed by the North (17.5 per cent) and Greater Lisbon," reads the note released by the National Statistics Institute in Portugal (INE).

In the Algarve, sales of accommodation to foreign buyers accounted for 27.2 per cent and 38.5 per cent, respectively, of the number and total value of transactions in the region. In the North, Centre, West and Tagus Valley, Greater Lisbon, Alentejo and the Autonomous Region of the Azores there were increases in the relative weight of this type of purchase, compared to 2022, in number and value, of more than one percentage point.

It's worth remembering that house sales in Portugal fell 18.7 per cent in 2023 to seven-year lows, totalling 28 billion euros, 11.9 per cent less than in 2022.

Resident buyers accounted for 24.4 billion euros of the total amount transacted, and foreign buyers for 3.6 billion. In addition, last year's relative weight for the national territory category, 87.3 per cent, is the lowest in the series that began in 2019 and reflects a reduction of 1.3 percentage points compared to the 2022 percentage.

In terms of the value per transaction, in 2023 each dwelling was sold for an average of 205,193 euros, which drops to 193,830 euros if it involves a resident buyer. Foreign buyers bought properties for an average of 276,897 euros in the case of the European Union category, while for the Other Countries category the figure was 405,082 euros.