Eurostat revealed this week that Portugal was the European Union (EU) country where house prices rose most in 2018, with a 10.3% change, followed by Ireland with 10.2%. This is more than double that of the EU as a whole, where the increase was 4.4%.
The rise in house prices is not recent. In 2013, this was when this trend began to be visible across Europe. Between 2013 and 2018, buying a home in Portugal was 38.6% more expensive. In the EU, the average increase was 18.6%, less than half that in Portugal. The only European country to counter this trend is Italy, where home prices fell by almost 10% between 2013 and 2018.
Although house prices in Portugal have steadily risen, their prices remain relatively cheap compared to other EU countries. On average, the cost of a house in Portugal is 1,119 € per m2, according to the Global Property Guide.
Over the past two years, housing prices in Portugal have stabilized following the continuing declines of 2009-2013.
