The Portuguese housing market and mortgage rates, read from the official series

This page is different from the rest of this site: it reports numbers rather than rules. So it follows the same discipline in a stricter form — every figure is attributed to the series it comes from, the quarter or month it describes, and the date that series was published. A market number without those three things is not information.

The short answer, as the official series stood when we read them on 9 November 2026: the median price of dwellings sold in Portugal was €2,445 per square metre in the second quarter of 2026, 18.4% higher than a year earlier, while 37,854 dwellings were sold, 9.0% fewer than in the same quarter of 2025. Median prices per square metre were €5,299 in Lisboa, €5,200 in Cascais and €4,704 in Oeiras. Buyers with tax residence outside Portugal paid 47.0% more per square metre than domestic buyers in Grande Lisboa, and 37.5% more in the Área Metropolitana do Porto. The average interest rate on new housing loans was 3.00% in August 2026, against a euro-area average of 3.60%.

What the official price figure actually measures

The price series is Estatísticas de Preços da Habitação ao nível local, published by INE, Portugal's statistics office. The release covering the second quarter of 2026 came out on 23 October 2026.

Two things about it decide how it should be read:

• It is a median of completed transactions, not an average, and not an asking price. Listing portals publish asking prices, which are a different quantity and move at a different time.
• It is a price level per square metre, which is why it can be compared across municipalities. A price index — INE also publishes one, the IPHab — measures change rather than level, and the two answer different questions.

So when this page says €2,445 per square metre, it means that half the dwellings sold in Portugal in that quarter sold below that figure per square metre and half above, as recorded in the transactions INE counted for the second quarter of 2026.

The median price in Portugal, Lisbon, Cascais and Oeiras

From the same release, for the second quarter of 2026:

The release's own headline was that prices accelerated in 10 of the 24 most populous municipalities. For the country as a whole the year-on-year rate was 18.4%, down from 19.8% in the previous quarter — so the national rate decelerated slightly while a substantial minority of large municipalities did the opposite.

Prices rose 18.4% while transactions fell 9.0%, from the same release

These two numbers belong together and are usually quoted apart.

• Median price per square metre, Portugal, Q2 2026: +18.4% year on year.
• Dwellings sold, Portugal, Q2 2026: 37,854, which is −9.0% year on year.

A market where prices rise at that rate while the number of transactions falls is not the same market as one where both rise, and the distinction matters to a buyer deciding whether to wait. We are not going to tell you which it is: this page reports the two series and names what each one counts.

Buyers with foreign tax residence paid 47% more per square metre in Greater Lisbon

This is the figure in the release most relevant to anyone reading this site, and INE states it as a price difference rather than as a share of the market:

• Grande Lisboa — the median price per square metre paid by buyers with tax residence outside Portugal was 47.0% higher than the median paid by buyers with tax residence in Portugal.
• Área Metropolitana do Porto — the same comparison gives 37.5% higher.

What it does not say is why. A premium of that size can be composition — different areas, different property types, newer stock — or price discrimination, or both, and the release we read does not decompose it. Our reading, labelled as such: the figure is a reason to get an independent valuation and to compare the asking price against the municipal median, not evidence that a particular seller is overcharging. The release also gives no share of purchases made by non-resident buyers, so this page publishes none.

Mortgage rates in Portugal: 3.00% on new housing loans

The interest-rate series is the Banco de Portugal statistical note on interest rates and amounts of new loans and deposits. The note for August 2026 was published on 1 October 2026.

• Average rate on new housing credit operations: 3.00%, up 0.03 pp on July.
• Within that: new contracts rose 0.05 pp to 3.00%; renegotiated contracts fell 0.05 pp, also to 3.00%.
• New housing loan contracts: €2,129 million, down €229 million on July.
• Renegotiations: €451 million in total, down €124 million, with the fall concentrated in housing renegotiations (−€120 million).
• For comparison from the same note: consumer credit averaged 8.98%.

Note what "new operations" covers: both new contracts and renegotiated ones, which is why the headline can move when nothing about new lending changes.

Why the average instalment is at a series high while the rate sits at 3%

The same note reports that the average monthly instalment on the outstanding stock of housing loans reached the highest value in the series: €446, €28 more than at the end of 2025.

That looks contradictory next to a 3.00% rate and is not. The instalment is an average over all outstanding loans, and it rises when newer, larger loans enter the stock even if the rate on them is unremarkable — which is what an 18.4% increase in prices does to the size of a mortgage. The rate series and the instalment series answer different questions: what credit costs, and what households actually pay.

How Portugal compares in the euro area

From the Banco de Portugal note for August 2026: the euro-area average rate on new housing loans rose 0.08 pp to 3.60%, and Portugal fell one place among euro-area countries, now holding the fourth lowest average rate.

So Portuguese mortgage credit was cheaper than the euro-area average by 0.60 pp in that month, and the gap narrowed because the Portuguese rate rose by less than the area's.

What these numbers cannot tell you

• What a specific property is worth. A municipal median covers everything sold in a quarter, from a studio to a villa.
• What you will be offered. The rate series is an average across banks and borrowers, including renegotiations, and says nothing about the spread a particular applicant receives.
• Whether prices will continue. Neither series is a forecast, and this site does not publish one.
• Why non-resident buyers pay more. The release states the difference and not its composition.

When the next figures come, and how to check this page

Both series are regular. The INE local price statistics are quarterly: the Q2 2026 release appeared on 23 October 2026, so the next covers Q3 2026. The Banco de Portugal note is monthly: the August 2026 note appeared on 1 October 2026.

Which means this page carries a date on every figure for a reason. If you are reading it well after 9 November 2026, take the figures here as the position in those releases and check the current ones at the two sources on our sources page: the INE local house price statistics and the Banco de Portugal note on new loans.

Frequently asked questions about the Portuguese housing market

More on buying in Portugal

What a purchase costs in tax, including the 2026 non-resident IMT rate and what it does not reach, is in buying land in Portugal. Why bank-owned stock exists and the five-year clock behind it is in bank-owned property in Portugal. The agency licence, the written mediation contract and the registers to check are in estate agents in Portugal. The autonomous regions run the land reserves differently: the Azores and Madeira.