Portugal Tops the EU for House-Price Growth at 17.8% in the First Quarter, With Only Finland's Market Falling
Eurostat says Portuguese house prices rose 17.8% year on year in the first quarter of 2026 — the steepest climb in the EU and more than three times the bloc's 5.1% average. Prices also rose 3.8% on the quarter, the second-fastest, as only Finland saw values fall over the year.
Portugal recorded the sharpest rise in house prices of any European Union country in the first quarter of 2026, according to figures released by Eurostat, the EU's statistical office. Prices for homes rose 17.8% compared with the same three months of 2025 — the steepest annual increase among the 26 member states for which data are available, and more than three times the EU-wide pace.
Across the euro area, house prices climbed 4.7% year on year; for the EU as a whole the figure was 5.1%. Portugal's 17.8% left every other country trailing, with Bulgaria (14.8%) and Slovakia (14.4%) the next fastest. Only one member state saw prices fall over the year: Finland, where values slipped 2.0%. In all, 25 of the 26 countries with figures registered an annual increase.
Still rising quarter on quarter
The pressure was not confined to the annual comparison. Measured against the previous quarter, Portuguese house prices rose 3.8% — the second-largest quarter-on-quarter jump in the bloc, behind only Bulgaria's 6.2% and ahead of Slovakia's 3.6%. By contrast, the euro area managed a 1.0% quarterly rise and the EU 1.2%. Prices actually dipped over the quarter in four countries: Belgium and Finland (both -0.8%), France (-0.6%) and Hungary (-0.5%).
That combination — the fastest annual growth and near-fastest quarterly growth — underlines how far Portugal's market has decoupled from the European norm. Where much of the continent has seen prices cool as higher interest rates bit, Portuguese values have kept climbing at a double-digit clip.
Demand that supply cannot meet
The drivers are by now familiar to anyone following the market. Portugal continues to attract strong foreign demand — from buyers relocating, from remote workers, and from investors drawn by the country's climate and relative safety — while the flow of new housing has lagged well behind. Tight supply in Lisbon, Porto and much of the Algarve has met a steady stream of purchasers, many of them paying in cash and less sensitive to mortgage costs than domestic first-time buyers.
For residents, the Eurostat reading is less an abstract statistic than a monthly reality. Rents track purchase prices with a lag, and each quarter of double-digit growth pushes ownership further out of reach for households on Portuguese wages. The gap between what locals earn and what homes cost has become one of the defining strains of the country's economy.
The government has leaned on tax policy to coax more supply into being, including a reduced 6% VAT rate on the construction of moderately priced housing that took effect on 1 July. But building takes years, and the Eurostat data measure a market that is running well ahead of any policy response. On present trends, Portugal looks set to hold its unwanted position at the top of Europe's house-price table for some time yet.
