INE: Foreign home purchases fall to lowest level since 2021

According to the Housing Price Index (IPHab) of the National Statistics Institute ( INE ), from January to March, 5.1 percent of the houses purchased in Portugal (2,098) involved investors with tax residence outside the country, with the European Union (EU) category representing 2.7 percent and the remaining countries 2.4 percent.

«The relative weight of purchases by buyers with tax residence outside the national territory was the lowest since the second quarter of 2021», he highlights.

On the contrary, homes purchased by buyers with tax residence in Portugal increased by 26.6 percent compared to the previous year, to 39,260 units.

According to the INE, there were “different dynamics” in transactions by buyers with tax residence outside Portugal: while the purchase of houses by buyers with tax residence in the EU grew by 12.1 percent year-on-year, to a total of 1,109 units, the “remaining countries” tax residence category totaled 989 transactions, an annual reduction of 8.3 percent and the fifth consecutive drop.

In total, 41,358 homes were transacted in the first quarter, representing a year-on-year growth of 25.0 percent and a quarter-on-quarter reduction of 8.5 percent. In terms of value, the transactions registered amounted to 9.6 billion euros, up 42.9 percent compared to the same period in 2024.

By region, the North, with a total of 12,285 transactions, represented 29.7 percent of all housing sales, a decrease of 0.3 percentage points compared to the same period of the previous year.

This was followed, in terms of number of transactions, by Greater Lisbon, with 8,018 sales, and the Central region, with 6,501 units, representing 19.4 percent and 15.7 percent of the total (+0.3 and -0.6 percentage points compared to the same quarter of 2024).

In terms of value, the Setúbal Peninsula and Madeira were the regions that recorded the largest year-on-year increases in terms of relative shares, 0.6 and 0.4 percentage points, respectively, totaling 9.9 percent and 2.8 percent of the total value, respectively.

Greater Lisbon and the Algarve, which together accounted for 42.4 percent of the total value transacted, saw their regional shares decrease by -0.7 and -0.3 percentage points year-on-year, in the same order.

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