According to the Housing Price Index (IPHab) of the National Statistics Institute (INE), among buyers with tax domicile outside Portugal, the category of residents in the European Union (EU), with a total of 1,242 units, registered a year-on-year growth in the number of transactions of 5.8%, the first since the third quarter of 2022.
However, the category of buyers with tax domicile outside the EU registered 1,222 transactions and a year-on-year reduction of 10.2% in the number of transactions (-11.9% in the first quarter of 2024).
Each of these two categories represents 3.3% of the total number of housing transactions in Portugal.
Between April and June of this year, 34,661 transactions were recorded whose buyers had a tax domicile in the national territory, an increase of 11.5% year-on-year.
In relative terms, the weight of these transactions in the total decreased to 93.4% (93.8% in the previous quarter), but increased compared to the same period last year (92.5%).
In a regional analysis, it can be seen that the North, with a total of 10,995 transactions, accounted for 29.6% of total housing sales in the second quarter, up 1.0 percentage points compared to the same period last year.
Alongside the North, the Centre and Alentejo, with 5,885 and 1,945, respectively, were the other regions that showed increases in their respective regional shares, of 0.5 and 0.2 percentage points, in the same order.
Housing transactions located in Greater Lisbon stood at 7,031 units, 18.9% of the total, a percentage identical to that of the same period last year.
In the Setúbal Peninsula, 3,523 homes were sold, 9.5% of the total, a year-on-year reduction of 0.4 percentage points.
In terms of number of transactions, the West and Tagus Valley and the Algarve followed, with 3,475 and 2,836 transactions, respectively.
In terms of relative shares, the transactions carried out in these two regions represented 9.4% and 7.6%, in the same order, corresponding, in the case of the West and Tagus Valley, to the maintenance of their respective relative weight and, in the Algarve, to a year-on-year reduction of 1.2 percentage points.
As for accommodation transactions in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, they amounted to 836 units, 2.3% of the total (-0.1 percentage points year-on-year), while in the Azores there were 599 transactions, maintaining the relative weight of 1.6%.
In terms of value, between April and June, housing transactions in Greater Lisbon totalled 2.5 billion euros, 32.2% of the total, down 0.7 percentage points year-on-year.
In the North, they totalled 1.9 billion euros, while in the Algarve they reached 912 million euros, which corresponds, in the first case, to a year-on-year increase in their relative weight of 1.3 percentage points, and, in the second, a reduction in the relative share by the same amount (-1.3 percentage points).
In the Setúbal Peninsula, the value of housing transactions (752 million euros) corresponded to 9.5% of the total, down 0.1 percentage points year-on-year.
The Centre saw an increase of 0.5 percentage points in its relative weight, to a total of 9.3%, corresponding to a value of 733 million euros, and in the West and Tagus Valley and in the Alentejo, the housing transactions totalled 508 and 227 million euros, respectively, corresponding to relative weights of 6.5% and 2.9%. In both cases, there were increases in their respective relative shares, of 0.3 percentage points in the West and Tagus Valley and of 0.1 percentage points in the Alentejo.
In Madeira, the housing transactions amounted to 189 million euros (2.4% of the total), around double the 95 million euros (1.2% of the total) in the Azores.
In the second quarter, four regions showed year-on-year growth above the national average in the number and value of accommodation transactions: Alentejo, North, Center and Azores, with increases of between 12.4% and 14.5% in the number of transactions and between 18.0% and 26.4% in the value of transactions.
Including foreigners who already have a tax domicile in Portugal, I'd guess foreigners account for no more than 9-10% of house purchases. So foreigners can hardly be blamed for 'pushing up house prices' which is a frequent but unjustified complaint here. Besides, foreigners are buying in a different segment of the market, especially very high-end properties. There is more than enough unsold property around to meet all tastes and budgets. That you can't afford to buy one isn't the fault of those who can!
By Billy Bissett from Porto on 23 Sep 2024, 10:07
"That you can't afford to buy one isn't the fault of those who can!"
You have some nerve asking people o take personal responsibility!
By j from Algarve on 28 Sep 2024, 10:42