According to data from National Statistics Institute (INE), in 2023 housing had a median cost of 1,611 euros per square meter (euros/m2), a value 2.0% higher than the year ended in the previous quarter and 8 .6% higher than the 12 months ending in the same quarter.

In 2023, “50 municipalities presented a median price higher than the national value, mainly located in the Algarve sub-regions (14 out of 16 municipalities), Greater Lisbon (all 9 municipalities), the Setúbal Peninsula (8 out of 9 municipalities) and in the Porto Metropolitan Area (7 out of 17 municipalities)”, highlights the institute.

But the good news is that the majority of the 300 municipalities with available data (in a universe of 308 municipalities) have much lower house prices.

What are the cheapest municipalities to buy a house?

According to a report by idealista, it is in the interior of the country that you can find the municipalities that have houses for sale at more affordable prices. In Mêda, Guarda district, it is possible to buy the cheapest homes in the country, with a median cost of 156 euros/m2 in 2023. This means that it is possible to buy a 100 m2 house for less than €16,000.

The municipality of Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo - also in the district of Guarda - presented the second most affordable house price of all 300 municipalities with available data: 185 euros/m2. In third place is Tabuaço (Viseu district), where buying a house cost 226 euros/m2. Thus, it is possible to purchase a 100 m2 house in Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo for around 19 thousand euros and in Tabuaço for less than 23 thousand euros.

At the end of the list of the 10 cheapest municipalities to buy a house is Celorico da Beira, in Guarda, where a 100 m2 cost 295 euros, in average terms, reveals INE. In other words, in this municipality it is possible to buy a house to live in for less than 30 thousand euros.

And where is it most expensive to buy a house?

The large urban centres of Lisbon, Porto and Faro, is where the most expensive municipalities in the country for purchasing housing are found. The most expensive municipality of all is Lisbon, where houses were sold for a median price of 4,167 euros/m2 in the last year ending in December 2023. Therefore, a house was purchased for a median price of 416.7 thousand euros in 2023. Next is the municipality of Cascais, with a price of 3,976 euros/m2.

The list of the most expensive municipalities to buy a house in Portugal includes three municipalities in the district of Faro: Loulé, Lagos and Vila do Bispo, where house prices exceed 3,150 euros/m2. In other words, families who bought houses in these municipalities paid more than 315 thousand euros.

The district of Faro is the one with the most municipalities in the ranking of the 10 most expensive municipalities to buy a house – a total of 6. The district of Lisbon is represented by four. The municipality of Porto is the only one to represent the metropolis of Invicta, appearing in eighth place, with the median price of houses sold at 2,866 euros/m2.