Portugal's Median New-Lease Rent Reached 10.17 Euros per Square Metre, Up 10.2%
The median rent in new Portuguese leases reached 10.17 euros per square metre in the second quarter of 2026, 10.2% higher than a year earlier.
The median rent agreed in new Portuguese lease contracts reached 10.17 euros per square metre in the second quarter of 2026, 10.2% higher than a year earlier, according to figures released by the national statistics office on 29 September 2026. That is an acceleration: the annual rise recorded in the first quarter was 9.1%. A total of 35,407 new lease contracts were signed in the quarter.
Fifteen euros in Lisbon, four and a half inland
The national median is an average of two very different countries. Greater Lisbon recorded a median of 15.24 euros per square metre. The autonomous region of Madeira followed at 12.78, then the Setúbal Peninsula at 11.99, the Algarve at 11.56 and the Porto Metropolitan Area at 10.83. At the other end, Terras de Trás-os-Montes in the far northeast recorded the country's lowest median at 4.42 euros per square metre.
At municipal level the concentration is sharper still. Among the 24 municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, Lisbon recorded the highest median rent at 17.79 euros per square metre, up 5.1% over the year.
The fastest increases are not where rents are highest
Lisbon's 5.1% is the detail worth pausing on, because it sits well below the national rate while Lisbon remains the most expensive municipality in the country. The steepest annual increases were recorded elsewhere: Alentejo Litoral at 21.6%, Terras de Trás-os-Montes at 17.6% and Madeira at 17.4%. Among the large municipalities, Guimarães recorded the fastest rise at 20.7%.
A region that holds the lowest median rent in Portugal and one of the three fastest annual increases is describing a market catching up from a very low base, not a market overheating. The same arithmetic that makes a one-euro increase invisible in Lisbon makes it a double-digit percentage in Trás-os-Montes. Readers comparing regional percentage changes without the levels beside them will consistently misread this table.
Contracts are thinning in parts of the north
The volume side of the release points in a different direction from the price side in some places. Among the large municipalities, Almada recorded the largest increase in new contracts, at 17.2%. Several large municipalities recorded fewer new contracts than a year earlier, with Matosinhos down 14.0% and Maia down 13.2% - both in the Porto metropolitan area, and both while rents nationally were rising at a double-digit rate.
The Lisbon and Porto metropolitan areas together accounted for 45.1% of all new lease contracts in the quarter.
Why our own rent figure is higher, and what that tells you
Our current Portugal row carries an asking rent of 20.98 US dollars per square metre a month, which is 18.1 euros, against an asking price of 3,718 US dollars per square metre, both for August 2026 from a national property portal. That 18.1 euros sits well above the 10.17 euros in this release, and the reason is not an error in either number.
Two things separate them. First, this release measures rent actually agreed in signed contracts across the whole country, including the inland municipalities where the median is under five euros; our figure measures advertised asking rent on a portal whose listings skew towards cities. Second, asking rents sit above agreed rents by construction, because an advertisement is an opening position.
We mark our Portugal row low confidence for a related reason. On checking the portal's district-level tables, its rent index runs on a more urban sample than its own price index, which means the gross yield computed from the pair is biased upward. The honest reading of the two sources together is that the statistics office number is the better description of what tenants are paying, and our number is the better description of what landlords are asking. Annual price growth on our row is 17.8%, our bubble score is 84, in the high band, and the reduced 10% rate on residential rental income applies only while the rent stays at or below 2,300 euros a month.
Sources: Instituto Nacional de Estatistica (INE), median rents in new lease contracts, second quarter 2026, released 29 September 2026, as reported by Observador https://observador.pt/2026/09/29/rendas-medianas-em-portugal-aceleram-para-subida-de-102-em-termos-homologos-diz-ine/; idealista, 29 September 2026 https://www.idealista.pt/news/imobiliario/habitacao/2026/09/29/77913-rendas-das-casas-sobem-para-recorde-mas-contratos-diferem-pelo-pais