Prices have already increased “three times more than anywhere else in Europe“
The average price of homes sold in Portugal increased by 10.3% in 2024 compared to the previous year, standing at €1,777 per square metre (m2), Statistics Portugal (INE) has announced today.
“Taking the 151,784 sales made during 2024 as a reference, the median price of family housing in Portugal was €1,777 per square metre, having increased by 4.0% compared to the year ending in September 2024 and by 10.3% compared to 2023,” says INE.
According to the institute, the average price of homes per sq m was even higher than the national average in the sub-regions of Greater Lisbon (€2,939/m2), the Algarve (€2,752/m2), the Autonomous Region of Madeira (€2,395/m2), Setúbal Peninsula (€2,117/m2) and the Porto Metropolitan Area (€1,986/m2).
“In the period under review, 54 municipalities had a median price higher than the national value, mostly located in the Algarve sub-regions (14 out of 16 municipalities), Greater Lisbon (all nine municipalities), Setúbal Peninsula (eight out of nine municipalities) and the Porto Metropolitan Area (seven out of 17 municipalities).”
The municipality of Lisbon (€4,340/m2) stood out with the highest price in the country, while there were also figures above €3,400/m2 in Cascais (€4,053/m2), Oeiras (€3,471/m2) and Lagos (€3,452/m2).
INE also notes that the Algarve and Greater Lisbon had more than €2,200/m2 price differentials between municipalities.
In 2024, the municipality of Lisbon recorded the highest number of family housing transactions in the country (8,300), while the municipalities of Sintra (5,817), Vila Nova de Gaia (5,394) and Porto (4,564) also stood out with more than 4,500 sales.
Lisbon had the highest median house price among the 24 municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, in both buyers’ tax residence categories: €4,238/m2 for buyers from Portugal and €5,771/m2 for buyers with tax residence abroad.
In addition to Lisbon, Cascais and Oeiras also recorded median house prices of more than €3,400/m2 in transactions involving buyers with tax residence in Portugal and more than €3,900/m2 for buyers abroad.
INE also highlights the municipalities of Lisbon, Cascais, Oeiras, Funchal and Porto for having the highest median prices among the 24 municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants and in the two categories of the buyer’s institutional sector considered, while the municipalities of Lisbon and Vila Franca de Xira had price differentials between institutional buyer sectors of more than €700/ m2.
Last year, 23 of the 24 municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants recorded higher median prices for new dwellings than for existing dwellings, the exception being the municipality of Amadora, where the median price for existing dwellings was €63/m2 higher than for new dwellings (€2,493/m2 and €2,430/m2, respectively).
Santa Maria da Feira had the lowest median price for new dwellings (€1,482/m2), while the municipalities of Cascais (€5,132/m2) and Lisbon (€5,035/m2) had the highest values, above €5,000/m2.
Cascais recorded the biggest difference between prices of new (€5,132/m2) and existing dwellings (€3,872/m2), which amounted to €1,260/m2. The municipality also stood out among those with more than 100,000 inhabitants for having the highest price in four-bed or higher (€4,585/m2).
Conversely, Lisbon had the highest median values for other types of accommodation considered.
The biggest difference between the median values in the four types of accommodation was in Funchal, between the studio or one-bedroom types (€3,279/m2) and those with four bedrooms or more (€2,007/m2): €1,272/m2.
Considering only the fourth quarter of 2024, the median price of the 44,115 dwellings transacted in Portugal was €1,870/m2, following a rate of change of 15.5% compared to the fourth quarter of 2023 (10.8% in the previous quarter).
The number of dwelling transactions in Portugal increased by 34.2% compared to the same quarter in 2023.
The subregions with the highest median house prices—Greater Lisbon, the Autonomous Region of Madeira, the Algarve, and the Porto Metropolitan Area—also had the highest values in both categories of the buyer’s tax residence (domestic and foreign).
The exception was Setúbal Peninsula, which exceeded the country’s value in transactions involving buyers with tax residence in Portugal.
As Público reported earlier this month, Portugal ranks as the European country where prices for residential property have already risen three times higher than “anywhere else in Europe”. That said, a look backwards at price increases since 2017 shows that they have been rising steadily, and at a higher rate, for the last decade. Indeed, in 2018 ratings agency Moody’s warned that house prices in Portugal “will just keep rising”, leading the country to the ‘housing crisis’ that has now taken hold.
LUSA/ Público
