The national real estate market has been slowing down for three consecutive quarters. According to data released by the National Statistics Institute (INE), the median price of family accommodation in Portugal was 1,565 euros per square metre in the first quarter, around 7.6% above the prices practiced a year earlier, which compares with a year-on-year rate of 10.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022.

It should be recalled that in the second quarter of 2022 the year-on-year rate of change in median prices in Portugal reached 17.8% and has been falling ever since.

“The median price of housing increased, compared to the same period last year, in 20 NUTS III sub-regions, with emphasis on growth in Lezíria do Tejo (+17.5%), Algarve (+16.6%), Leiria (+ 15.9%), Cávado (+15.6%) and Área Metropolitana de Lisboa (+15.2%)”, says the statement from INE.

Among the 17 municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, INE data reveal that 14 of these municipalities had year-on-year rates of change above the national average, with emphasis on Loures (26.5%), which the highest value.

Lisbon was one of the municipalities that presented the lowest year-on-year change (9.2%), but achieved, “for the first time since the first quarter of 2020 (beginning of the current series), a year-on-year rate of change higher than that of the country”, reads up in the statement from the national statistics office.