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

“The relative weight of purchases by buyers with tax residence outside Portugal was the lowest since the second quarter of 2021”, it highlights.

Meanwhile, the number of homes purchased by buyers with tax residence in Portugal increased by 26.6% 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 home purchases by buyers with tax residence in the EU grew by 12.1% year-on-year, to a total of 1,109 units, the “remaining countries” tax residence category totalled 989 transactions, an annual reduction of 8.3% and the fifth consecutive fall.

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

Regional differences

By region, the North, with a total of 12,285 transactions, represented 29.7% of all home sales, a drop of 0.3 percentage points compared to the same period in the previous year.

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

In terms of value, the Setúbal Peninsula and Madeira were the regions that recorded the largest annual increases in terms of relative shares, 0.6 and 0.4 percentage points, respectively, totalling 9.9% and 2.8% of the total value, respectively.

Greater Lisbon and the Algarve, which together represented 42.4% of the total value transacted, saw their regional shares decrease by -0.7 and -0.3 percentage points in the annual comparison, in the same order.