Key figures — as of 2026-09-16: INE's official transaction data put the national median at €2,337/m² in Q1 2026, up 19.8% year-on-year — the fastest pace since the series began — while idealista's asking-price index hit a fresh record of €3,207/m² in August 2026 — Foreign nationals' share of family home purchases fell to 27.6% in 2025, down from a 31% peak in 2023 — Non-resident investment (buyers living abroad) shrank to just 8% of total transactions, down from roughly 13% at the end of 2023 — Faro (Algarve) posted the steepest annual price rise of any district capital in August 2026, at 18.3%.
Two data sets, one uncomfortable story
Portugal's housing market just delivered a contradiction that matters enormously for anyone still shopping for a home here. Statistics Portugal (INE) revealed that, after rising 19.8% over the past year, the median price of houses sold reached €2,337 per square metre at the start of 2026 — the highest figure on record. That's the fastest annual growth rate INE has ever logged for this series, and it happened while fewer homes actually changed hands — 35,953 in the first three months of 2026, down 10.5% on the same period last year.
Idealista's separate, more current asking-price index tells a slightly gentler but equally record-breaking story. Prices in Portugal rose 7.5% in August compared with the same month of 2025, reaching €3,207 per square metre — the median value. That's a cooling from the double-digit rates seen earlier in the year, but prices rose in all 20 district capitals and autonomous regions analysed — meaning there is nowhere left to hide from the increases, only degrees of exposure.
Faro is the sharpest example. Faro registered the biggest annual increase, of 18.3%, ahead of Guarda (17.6%), Bragança (17.5%), Beja (17.4%) and Portalegre (17.3%). Faro is the Algarve's district capital — precisely the region that has long been the entry point for foreign buyers, which makes the acceleration there sting more for newcomers house-hunting in the sun.
Foreign buyers are actually retreating
Here's the part that surprises people: while prices climb, foreigners are buying a smaller slice of the pie. The relative weight of foreign nationals in total home acquisitions by households fell to 27.6% in 2025 — the lowest share since 2021 — down from a peak of 31% in 2023.
The retreat is sharper still among non-residents — people living abroad rather than immigrants already settled in Portugal. Investment in Portuguese housing by non-residents cooled from around 13% of the national total at the end of 2023 to just 8% by the second quarter of 2025. Buyers living outside the EU — Brazilians and Americans among them — pulled back the most, and non-residents overall have never accounted for more than 8% of transactions in the past seven years, a share that has been shrinking since the golden visa's real-estate route ended and the NHR regime changed.
Yet those who do buy still pay a hefty premium. The average 2025 transaction value for buyers with EU tax domicile was €335,640, and for other countries €470,277, against €234,120 for buyers domiciled in Portugal. And geographically, the Algarve remains the top destination for non-resident buyers, accounting for 29.7% of their transactions and 42.4% of the value they spent, followed by the North and Greater Lisbon.
GrowIN's read on the numbers
Run INE's own growth rate backwards and the household-level impact becomes concrete. If the national median stood at €2,337/m² in Q1 2026 after a 19.8% annual rise, the equivalent Q1 2025 figure was roughly €1,952/m². Applied to a modest 90m² apartment — a realistic size for a couple or small family — that's a jump from about €175,700 to roughly €210,300 in a single year: around €34,600 in extra purchase cost, or close to €2,900 for every additional square metre, on the exact same size flat, using INE's official transaction benchmark rather than asking prices.
"Portugal's property market is now moving fast enough that waiting six months to buy can cost a household the equivalent of a year's rent," says GrowIN Portugal Editorial.
What this means if you're still looking
The practical squeeze isn't really about foreigners flooding the market and driving up prices — the data shows the opposite, a shrinking foreign share. It's about supply. Fewer homes are being listed and sold nationally, so even a smaller pool of buyers, foreign or domestic, is competing hard enough to keep pushing records. For anyone relocating, that means budgeting a buffer above whatever asking price you see today, moving quickly once a NIF and Portuguese bank account are in place, and treating the Algarve's popularity as a double-edged sword: strong rental demand, but also the country's fastest-rising price tag this year.
Before signing anything, get the tax and residency basics sorted — see our tax & NIF hub for what's required before you can even make an offer — and budget for the transfer taxes, stamp duty and notary costs that sit on top of the purchase price. GrowIN's services team can also help coordinate the NIF, fiscal representation questions and paperwork that trip up first-time buyers here.
What to watch next
Keep an eye on INE's next quarterly release and idealista's monthly index for September — if the official transaction data keeps accelerating while asking prices keep cooling, it will confirm a market where completed sales are running hotter than what's currently listed, a sign that available stock is being absorbed faster than sellers can reprice it.
Whatever happens with the government's pending housing fiscal package, the message for foreigners house-hunting right now is blunt: the record highs aren't a blip, and neither is the shrinking foreign share — they're two sides of the same undersupplied market.