Existing Homes in Portugal Cost 18 Percent More Than a Year Ago, While Buyers With Foreign Tax Addresses Bought 10.3 Percent Fewer

Second-hand homes in Portugal cost 18.0 percent more in the second quarter of 2026 than a year earlier, while the number of homes changing hands fell 6.4 percent and buyers with a tax address outside the country bought 10.3 percent fewer of them. The figures come from the Índice de Preços da Habitação (House Price Index) released by INE, the national statistics institute, on Tuesday.

The headline index rose 16.5 percent year on year across all dwellings, down 1.3 percentage points from the previous quarter's 17.8 percent. That is a second consecutive quarter of deceleration, and the gap between the two segments of the market is now wide: existing dwellings at 18.0 percent against 12.3 percent for new builds.

Quarter on quarter the index gained 3.6 percent, marginally below the 3.8 percent of the first quarter. On that shorter measure the two segments move almost in step, existing homes at 3.6 percent and new homes at 3.5 percent. The divergence, in other words, is an annual phenomenon rather than a sudden one.

Fewer sales, more money

Between April and June, 40,142 dwellings were transacted, 6.4 percent fewer than in the same quarter of 2025. Yet the total value of those transactions reached 10.7 billion euros, up 4.2 percent year on year. Prices rose fast enough to more than absorb a shrinking number of deals.

Households accounted for the overwhelming share: 34,935 purchases, 87.0 percent of the total, worth 9.3 billion euros or 86.6 percent of the value. The institutional and corporate remainder is small.

The figure most directly relevant to foreign residents is the smallest one. Buyers whose tax domicile is outside Portugal acquired 1,890 dwellings in the quarter, 4.7 percent of all transactions, a fall of 10.3 percent on the same period last year. That decline is steeper than the market-wide 6.4 percent drop, so non-resident buyers are retreating faster than domestic ones.

The category is worth reading precisely. It counts tax domicile, not nationality. A foreign national who has moved to Portugal and registered a Portuguese fiscal address is not in the 1,890; a Portuguese emigrant buying from abroad is. It is a measure of money arriving from outside the country rather than of foreigners buying homes.

Where this sits

The deceleration is real but modest. When INE reported the first quarter in June, the index had slowed for the first time in nearly two years, with sales down 8.7 percent. Two quarters on, the pattern has held: prices still climbing at double-digit rates, volumes still falling, the two moving in opposite directions.

The 18.0 percent figure for existing homes against 12.3 percent for new ones is the detail worth carrying forward. New construction is priced against building costs and finance; the existing stock is priced against scarcity. When the older stock outruns new build by nearly six percentage points, the constraint is supply of homes rather than cost of materials. Portugal's land-reclassification law, designed to release ground for building, drew just 27 requests in its first 18 months.

What this means for foreign residents

• Buying an older flat is now the expensive route. The renovation-project arithmetic that worked two years ago has shifted; existing stock is appreciating half again as fast as new build.
• Non-resident demand is cooling faster than the market. If you are selling into that segment, the buyer pool shrank 10.3 percent in a year.
• Your fiscal address changes which statistic you are in. Once you hold a Portuguese tax domicile you count as a household buyer, which is the 87.0 percent group, not the 4.7 percent.
• Deceleration is not a fall. A move from 17.8 to 16.5 percent still means prices rising far above wages. Waiting for a correction on this evidence would be a bet against the last eight quarters.

INE publishes the index quarterly, with third-quarter figures due in December. The full release and the accompanying tables are available from the institute's Destaques service.