Portugal’s housing market recorded its steepest annual price increase since 2019 during the second quarter, fueling concerns over affordability in one of Europe’s popular destinations.
The median price for residential properties reached approximately $2,230 per square meter, reflecting a significant 19% year-on-year jump. This marks the highest annual variation since national statistics began tracking in 2019.
The rapid acceleration also showed a 5.8% increase from the previous quarter.
Prices accelerated across most of the country, with 19 of Portugal’s 24 largest municipalities reporting faster housing price growth between April and June.
Lisbon recorded the highest median price at about $5,254 per square meter. Cascais followed closely at $4,694 per square meter.
Other expensive areas included Oeiras ($4,500), Porto ($3,574), Odivelas ($3,476), and Almada ($3,349) per square meter.
Municipalities experiencing the most significant accelerations in their annual price variation rates included Vila Nova de Gaia, up 13.4 percentage points, Coimbra, up 12.7 percentage points, and Amadora, up 10.9 percentage points.
Both Lisbon and Porto also saw their annual price increase rates rise by 4.2 and 4.9 percentage points, respectively, when comparing the first and second quarters.
Notably, Cascais was an outlier, recording a 6.6 percentage point decrease in its annual variation rate, despite remaining one of the country’s most expensive regions.
The data, released by the National Statistics Institute (INE) on Wednesday, covered 41,608 residential transactions across Portugal during the second quarter.