Idealista Walks the Q1 2026 Housing-Stock Read Into a 14% National Contraction — Faro Down 38%, Porto Down 25% and Lisbon Down 13% as Two Districts Carry the Only Positive Prints

Idealista published on Thursday 14 May 2026 the first-quarter read of its Stock de Habitação para Venda index — the supply-side counterpart to the better-known Idealista price tape — and the print walks Portugal into a national 14% year-on-year contraction in homes listed for sale.

The headline reading covers the full Continental and Insular territory and is the steepest first-quarter contraction the index has recorded since Idealista started publishing the supply series. The portal's analysts read the print as confirmation that the structural shortage of housing for sale in Portugal — flagged repeatedly by the Banco de Portugal, the OECD and the Confederation of Construction in successive 2025 reports — is now sharpening at the start of 2026.

Capital-city tape — 18 of 20 districts in the red

The capital-city read covers the 18 district capitals on the mainland plus Funchal and Ponta Delgada in the autonomous regions. Only two prints land in positive territory: Santarém at +2% and Vila Real at +1%. Every other district capital posts a contraction.

The largest declines sit on the Algarve and inland fringe. Faro leads the contraction at -38%, followed by Portalegre at -31% and Funchal at -26%. The metropolitan capitals follow: Porto -25%, Évora -21%, Coimbra -16%, Aveiro -15%, Castelo Branco -15%, Braga -13% and Lisboa -13%. The remainder — Leiria -11%, Setúbal -10%, Ponta Delgada -8%, Viseu -8%, Guarda -7%, Bragança -6%, Viana do Castelo -4%, Beja -3% — fill out the negative tape.

District/island read tells a slightly less alarming story

The district-and-island aggregate — which captures suburban and rural concelhos alongside the capital city — softens the worst capital prints but confirms the direction of travel. Faro and Portalegre share the worst district reading at -19%; Aveiro, Coimbra, Leiria, Porto and Madeira all land at -16%; Évora at -15%, Braga at -13%, and Lisboa at -12%. The interior districts of Bragança (-11%), Guarda (-7%), Beja (-6%), Castelo Branco (-6%), Viana do Castelo (-6%), and Viseu (-4%) all see less acute contraction than the coastal tape. Vila Real (+5%) is the only district in the green at the territorial level.

What the supply contraction means for price

Idealista's commentary frames the read in stark terms: "o stock de habitação à venda recuou 14%, refletindo a pressão crescente sobre o mercado residencial e as dificuldades de o ritmo de nova construção acompanhar a procura." The pressure-and-construction-lag framing is consistent with the IHRU and INE construction prints earlier this quarter, which read building permits up year-on-year but actual completions still trailing the demographic absorption rate.

For buyers, the supply contraction lands at the same moment that the 12-month Euribor reaches 2.798% (Thursday's fixing), bond yields top a 12-year high after Wednesday's IGCP auction, and Banco de Portugal's mortgage delinquency print remains at decade lows. The combination — tight supply, mid-cycle financing costs, low arrears — is precisely the configuration that has driven Portuguese asking prices to consecutive new records across 2024 and 2025.

For sellers, the 18-of-20 negative-capital tape is the strongest signal in two years that the listing-side dynamic has not yet found a bottom. Idealista's next supply read is due in mid-August for Q2 2026.