Foreigners are buying more houses in Portugal

  • ECO News
  • 25 September 2019

Non-resident citizens have again increased the purchase of homes in Portugal in 2018, with French and British on the front line. Chinese almost six times the value of the market as a whole.

Non-resident citizens bought 8.2% of all property sold in Portugal in 2018, and paid a price almost 60% above the average of global transactions, said the National Statistics Institute (INE) this Wednesday. Residents in France and the United Kingdom were once again the biggest buyers of real estate in Portugal, but residents in China paid a price almost six times higher than the market as a whole.

According to data released this Wednesday by INE, the number of properties bought by non-residents increased from 7.7% in 2017 to 8.2% in 2018, corresponding to 13% of the total value of properties sold.

The growth was not as expressive, in number and value, as it was in 2017. However, the difference between what these non-residents paid for the properties they bought and the average value of overall transactions is growing. In 2017, non-residents paid 49% more than the average. In 2018, this difference grew to 58%.

Thus, while the average value of real estate on the market was 108 thousand euros, the value paid by non-residents was on average 171.2 thousand euros.

While residents in France and the UK remain the biggest buyers, citizens residing in China paid a much higher price, almost six times the market price, INE says. The average price of property sold to Chinese in 2018 was €297,200.