Portugal posts EU’s biggest house price rise in Q1

Portugal recorded the biggest year-on-year increase in house prices in the European Union in the first quarter, with values rising 10.3%, according to Eurostat data.

Eurostat’s data, released on Thursday, shows Portugal ahead of Bulgaria, where house prices rose 9.4%, and Slovakia, at 9.1%. France and Finland were the only EU countries to post declines, with falls of 0.5% and 1.8%, respectively.

Compared with the 2025 annual average, Portugal was one of 19 EU member states where house prices increased more than rents. Across the bloc, house prices rose 5.1% year on year between January and March 2026, while rents increased 3%. Against the fourth quarter of 2025, house prices in the EU rose 1.2% and rents 0.7%.

Eurostat said rents increased in every EU country except Slovenia, where they fell 0.9%, and Finland, where they were unchanged. Portugal has been posting consecutive increases in both rents and home prices. In the first three months of the year, the median rent on more than 39,000 new contracts reached €9.46 per square metre, up 9.1% from a year earlier, according to Portugal’s statistics office.

Originally published at Eco.pt