The property market in Portugal

What is the property market like in Portugal?

5 January 2018, 11:39

Before the Property Bubble:

Every single region in Portugal has seen property prices fall since the end of 2007 thanks to the global economic crisis. There was a small uplift in 2009 but then another steady drop until 2014, when the economy started to pick up again. Even so, the boom wasn’t as marked in Portugal as in other countries due the infamously slow economic growth there.

In total, prices fell between 3.4% and 15.7% depending on the area. The region with the greatest price drops was Madeira and the one with the least was the whole northern region.

…and now

The demand for properties is going up steeply (17% in 2017) which means that house prices are also going up. They are forecast to keep going up in the future, especially in cities and popular coastal areas, with an average increase of about 5%.

Property prices

The average price per square metre in Portugal is 1,080 euro, although prices vary a lot between different areas, with coastal areas and large cities like Lisbon and Porto being much more expensive that rural areas.

The Algarve: It is an expensive region due to its popularity with foreign visitors. A studio apartment could cost around 9,000 euro while a 4-bedroom villa could be as much as 1 million euro.

Second hand properties: New properties are always more expensive, so if you want more bang for your buck, it’s better to buy properties that are not new builds. The cheapest place for this is in Altenejo, where the average price is 826 euro/m2 and the northern part of the country, where it is 835 euro/m2. On the other hand, the most expensive region for this is in the Algarve (1,322 euro/m2), followed by Lisbon (1,153 euro/m2) and Madeira (1,127 euro/m2).