House Prices in Portugal Have Outpaced Incomes by 60.8 Percent Since 2015, Nine Times the EU Figure, Eurostat Data Show

Over the past decade, homes in Portugal have lost more ground against what households earn than anywhere else in the European Union. Eurostat's standardised house price-to-income ratio for Portugal rose by 60.8 percent between 2015 and 2025, almost nine times the EU figure of 6.8 percent, according to the agency's latest annual data. In plain terms: house prices have risen 60.8 percent more than household income over the decade.

The comparison was reported on Monday by Dinheiro Vivo. We checked it against the underlying Eurostat dataset, tipsho60, last updated on 3 November, and the figures match.

What the indicator measures

Eurostat divides house prices by income, defined as adjusted household gross disposable income per head of population, and compares the result with its own long-term average from 2000 onwards. It is not a wage series: disposable income per head includes pensions, benefits and other income after tax, so it is a broader measure of what households have to spend than salaries alone.

Portugal far ahead of the rest

• Portugal: 60.8 percent rise in the price-to-income ratio from 2015 to 2025.
• The next highest were the Netherlands (34.3 percent), Hungary (26.5 percent), Czechia (25.8 percent) and Spain (24.5 percent).
• The ratio rose in 17 member states and fell in 10, led by Romania (down 42.8 percent), Finland (down 25.2 percent) and Bulgaria (down 16.2 percent).
• The euro area average was 5.6 percent.

The gap widened sharply last year. Portugal's ratio rose 12.1 percent in 2025 alone, the biggest annual increase in the EU, ahead of Hungary and Spain at 8.8 percent each.

Measured against its own history, Portugal's ratio in 2025 stood 37 percent above its long-term average (an index of 137, where 100 means prices and incomes are in their usual relationship). That is the highest reading in the EU; Czechia is next at 18 percent above, and the EU as a whole sits exactly on its average. In 2015, by contrast, Portuguese homes were relatively cheap, with the ratio about 15 percent below its long-term level after more than a decade of decline.

The raw price series shows why. Eurostat's house price index puts Portuguese prices in 2025 at 2.64 times their 2015 level, a rise of about 164 percent, against about 62 percent across the EU. Incomes grew too, but nowhere near as fast. We reported in October that Portugal led the EU for house price growth again in the second quarter of 2026, so prices were still climbing fast this year.

What it means for you

For residents and immigrants buying or renting, the data shows that the squeeze is not only about high prices but about prices running away from earnings. A household whose income rose in line with the national average since 2015 now needs a much larger share of it, or a bigger mortgage, to buy the same home. Even with pay rising faster than inflation in recent years, as Eurostat's earnings figures showed last week when Portugal's average full-time salary reached 26,202 euros, wages have not kept pace with homes.