House prices continue to rise in Portugal and reach levels never seen before. In the first quarter of this year alone, the increase was 12.9 percent. According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), the prices of existing homes increased at a faster rate than those of new homes. Between January and March, 43,544 homes were sold, equivalent to around 8.1 billion euros.

On average, a house was traded in Portugal every three minutes and each house was sold for around 186 thousand euros. For every 17 houses sold, 15 were bought by families. In the same 17 houses, 16 were sold to Portuguese and one to foreigners.

Real estate has been rising for several years in Portugal, the reasons being typically cited as one of the reasons for this movement the demand for foreigners. However, in this first quarter, only 5.9 percent of the total number of transactions (2,556 homes) involved foreign buyers.

The housing price index (IPHab) grew 12.9 percent in the first quarter, compared to the same period in 2021. This growth was 1.3 percent higher than the previous quarter.

Price increases were more pronounced for second-hand homes (13.6 percent) than for new ones (10.9 percent). Most of the homes purchased belong to the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, with 13,464 homes sold. North and Center followed, with 12,371 and 8,721 transactions respectively. Even so, it was the Algarve that registered a higher increase in sales, with 4,129 units. “This was the region that grew the most in terms of relative regional weight, plus 1.5 percentage points”, according to INE data.

Font: NIT