Portuguese Asking Prices Held at €3,207 per Square Metre in August as Faro Ran 18.3% Higher
idealista's August index puts Portuguese asking prices at €3,207 per square metre, up 7.5% on the year, while asking rents rose 4.9% to €18.1 per square metre.
Portugal's asking prices went sideways in August and up sharply over twelve months. The national median closed the month at €3,207 per square metre against €3,210 in July — a rounding error month-on-month — while the annual rate came in at 7.5%, down from 8% a month earlier. idealista published the price index on 1 September and the companion rent index on 2 September.
The interior is doing the growing
The headline conceals a country pulling apart by geography. Among district capitals, Faro led at 18.3% (€3,908 per square metre), followed by Guarda at 17.6% (€1,122), Bragança at 17.5% (€1,139), Beja at 17.4% (€1,533) and Portalegre at 17.3% (€1,242). Lisbon, the most expensive city in the country at €6,227, grew the least of any capital: 3.2%. Porto managed 9.4% at €4,324.
By region, Centro rose 14.1% to €1,773 and Alentejo 14% to €2,172, against 5% for the Lisbon metropolitan area at €4,457. Santarém district posted the steepest district-level move at 22.9% (€1,693). The single negative reading came from Faial in the Azores, down 10.1% to €1,674. The pattern is consistent: the cheapest places are appreciating fastest in percentage terms, which is what happens when buyers priced out of the coast start bidding for a smaller stock inland.
Rents have stopped falling
The rental index tells a separate story. The national median asking rent reached €18.1 per square metre in August, 4.9% higher than a year earlier and the second consecutive monthly increase after six months of declines through the first half of 2026. Lisbon rents run at €24.5 (+7%), Porto at €18.6 (−6.3%). The extremes are regional: Viana do Castelo up 32.2% at €12.5, Aveiro up 23.8% at €14.6, and the Algarve up 22.8% at €21.3 — while the North region as a whole fell 6.3%.
That Faro leads both indices is not a coincidence. The Algarve is where the sale and rental markets are being squeezed from the same direction, by seasonal and foreign demand competing for a stock that construction has not expanded quickly enough.
Reading it against transaction data
One caution on the numbers: idealista measures asking prices from listings, not completed deals. Glopra's own Portuguese series is built on transaction-based national data and shows a different level — $2,659 per square metre nationally, with Lisbon at $6,957 and a national gross rental yield of 4.29%, falling to 3.76% in Lisbon. Asking and transaction series routinely diverge in both level and timing, and the gap tends to widen when sellers are slow to adjust. Investors comparing the two should treat idealista's index as a measure of what owners want, and the registry-based series as a measure of what buyers paid.
On Glopra's methodology, Portugal also carries a high bubble-risk reading, and the standardised effective tax on non-resident rental income is 10% — enough to move a 4.29% gross yield closer to 3.9% net before costs.
Sources: idealista/news Portugal (idealista price index, August 2026), 1 Sep 2026 https://www.idealista.pt/news/imobiliario/habitacao/2026/09/01/77337-comprar-casa-em-portugal-ficou-7-5-mais-caro-em-agosto; idealista/news Portugal (rent index, August 2026), 2 Sep 2026 https://www.idealista.pt/news/imobiliario/habitacao/2026/09/02/77386-renda-das-casas-sobe-4-9-em-agosto-e-afasta-se-da-tendencia-de-queda