Houses sold in Portugal between October 2022 and September 2023 had a median price of 1,579 euros/m2, 2.5% more compared to the year ended in June. But only 49 of the country's 304 municipalities have higher prices, with Lisbon, Cascais and Oeiras leading the list, reveals data from the National Statistics Institute (INE).

The vast majority of the 304 municipalities with available data (out of a universe of 308) have much lower house prices. This indicates that it is the high costs of housing in municipalities located in large urban centers, such as Lisbon, Porto and Faro, that have stimulated the increase in prices at a national level.


Where to buy cheap houses in Portugal?

If you are looking for more affordable homes to buy and are willing to change locations, then there are several municipalities in the interior of the country to consider. Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo (in the Guarda district), which has the cheapest median prices of all (140 euros/m2). Here it is possible to buy a 100 m2 house for €14,000.

In second place is Mêda, in Guarda, which has a median price for houses sold of 163 euros/m2. And in third place is Sernancelhe (district of Viseu), where buying a house cost 197 euros/m2 in the last 12 months ending in the third quarter of 2023.

At the bottom of the list of the 10 cheapest municipalities to buy a house is Mogadouro, in Bragança, and Pampilhosa da Serra, in Coimbra, where a m2 cost 298 euros, in median terms, reveals INE.

Where is it more expensive?

As expected, it is in the country's large urban centers where buying a house is more expensive, namely in Lisbon, Faro and Porto. The most expensive municipality of all is Lisbon, where houses were sold for a median price of 4,151 euros/m2 in the last year ending in September 2023. This means that families spent, on average, 415 thousand euros for a home in the capital.

Next up are Cascais and Oeiras, also in the Lisbon district, where the prices of houses sold stood at 3,831 euros/m2 and 3,177 euros/m2 in that period, respectively, according to data from the Portuguese statistics office.

The district of Faro has six municipalities in the ranking of the most expensive municipalities to buy a house: Loulé, Lagos, Vila do Bisco, Aljezur, Tavira and Albufeira. Porto appears in eighth place, with the median price of houses sold at 2,798 euros/m2.