Portugal's real estate market continues to attract the French

The real estate market in Portugal is still going strong. In just a few years, Portugal has become Europe's new Eldorado for investors, and continues to attract more and more foreigners.

Since 2013, residential real estate has been recovering after 8 years of sharp depreciation due to the subprime crisis. Portugal has gone from being a very local economy, with little tourism and little presence on the international scene, to an attractive location for foreigners.

According to Apemip, the Portuguese association of real estate professionals, 20% of real estate transactions were carried out by foreign buyers in 2018. In Lisbon, the weight of these investments reached 28% of the total value of sales.

The French are the 1st investors

To date, 50,000 French residents (including 16,611 new entries in the French Embassy's consular register in 2018) have settled in Portugal, and they continue to be the biggest investors, with nearly 27% of transactions carried out by foreigners, ahead of Brazilians and Chinese.

The main reason for this foreign investment is the introduction of non-habitual resident status in 2009, to attract both working and retired investors.

The market grew by 10% in 2019

This influx of investors foreigners has had an impact on the real estate market. Tourism, via tourist taxes, has contributed to the rehabilitation of historic city centers such as Porto. Real estate development projects have multiplied. According to INEResidential property prices rose by 10.3% in 2019. By way of comparison, between 2008 and 2013 the market had fallen by around 20%.

Today, the real estate market in Portugal has regained its fair value and the market can be considered stable. As proof, the number of transactions, which had already been on the rise in recent years, rose again by 16.6% year-on-year in 2018. Over the past year, 178,691 properties were sold, 80% of them in less than 6 months. An upturn that has affected all of Portugal.

You can still get a good deal

Demand in the first quarter of 2019 on the Portuguese real estate market is as strong as ever, and supply is unfortunately not sufficient to meet it. As a result, prices are set to rise again this year. The Portuguese residential real estate market continues to offer excellent opportunities. While some areas (Porto and Lisbon) no longer offer the same potential for capital gains, others are still up-and-coming. Peripheral areas have become the new playground for both local and foreign investors.