The Braga Brief, Week of 2 October 2026: Guimarães Rents Rise Fastest of Portugal's Big Councils, a Defence Hub Nears Completion at Avepark, and Barcelos Approves a Tourist Tax

Good morning from the Minho. Guimarães has the fastest-rising rents of any large council in Portugal, its mayor admits wages there have fallen further behind, and a defence hub is nearly ready at Avepark. Here is your roundup for 26 September to 2 October.

Guimarães: rents up a fifth, wages left behind

New leases in Guimarães signed between April and June had a median rent of 7.87 euros per square metre, up 20.7 percent on a year earlier, INE's local rent statistics show. That is the steepest rise among the 24 councils with more than 100,000 people, and twice the national increase of 10.2 percent. Guimarães is still cheaper than the country as a whole (10.17 euros), but the gap is closing fast.

Elsewhere in the region the climb was gentler. Braga remains the dearest big council in the Minho at 9.05 euros per square metre, up 8.6 percent; Famalicão rose 8.9 percent to 7.58 euros; and Barcelos barely moved, up 2 percent to 6.77 euros.

The same week, mayor Ricardo Araújo gave a frank diagnosis of the local economy. Manufacturing, mostly cutlery and metalworking, accounts for 43 percent of jobs, and exports come close to 1.5 billion euros a year, yet the average wage sits below both the national and the regional average. Over the last ten years, he said, there has been no convergence; if anything, Guimarães has fallen further behind. His answer is innovation, and the council's fourth Mês da Economia (Economy Month), with a budget of 100,000 euros, runs from today until 28 October, bringing together businesses and universities.

A defence hub nearly ready at Avepark

A week after a start-up announced defence plans for Braga, Guimarães has one of its own. Fibrenamics, the Minho innovation association that works on fibre-based materials and composites, is finishing the refurbishment of a building of about 8,000 square metres at the Avepark science park for its new Defense & Protection innovation hub. Chief executive Luís Oliveira told ECO's eRadar conference on Monday that he expects it to be fully running "within a year at most", with research centres and companies on site.

Fibrenamics already makes ballistic protection, bulletproof helmets and kit against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats. Oliveira also had a complaint: the partner firms have struggled to sell to the Portuguese Army itself, because "when the only criterion is cost, it is difficult".

Health: two moves and an unwelcome arrival

From tomorrow, Braga's weekend and holiday clinic (the Serviço de Atendimento Complementar, or SAC) moves into the Carandá health centre. Hours stay the same: Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, 09:00 to 19:00. It treats minor acute illness when health centres are shut, and the ULS still asks people to ring SNS 24 on 808 24 24 24 first.

In Barcelos, the Vila Cova family health unit moved on Thursday into the old Fragoso health centre for about three months, while its building is repaired for leaks and new climate control. Opening hours (08:00 to 20:00, weekdays) are unchanged for its roughly 5,400 patients.

The Alto Minho health authority has confirmed the tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), which can carry dengue, zika and chikungunya, in three of its councils, without naming them. No infected mosquitoes and no local cases have been found. The advice is to empty standing water: plant saucers, gutters, buckets and pets' bowls.

Barcelos votes for a tourist tax

Barcelos council approved a tourist tax of 2 euros per person per night on Monday, payable all year by guests aged 13 and over, for up to seven nights, in hotels, rural tourism and local lodging. Medical stays, people with a disability of 60 percent or more, Erasmus students and pilgrims in recognised hostels are exempt. The council counts 77,885 overnight stays in 2025 and believes the true figure tops 120,000. The municipal assembly still has to ratify it.

In the courts

Luís Rufo, who practised as a lawyer in Braga from 1993 to 2022 without a completed law degree, was given a 10-month suspended sentence on Thursday. Prosecutors had charged him with 141 counts of usurping a profession; the court convicted him on one, finding that he used false certificates to finish his degree. He must pay 15,000 euros to three institutions and 3,000 euros to the Bar Association. He denied forging anything. We covered the opening of the trial in September.

A Braga man accused of killing his neighbour with a hoe last December, over a debt of about 35 euros, goes on trial on 4 November. Prosecutors, citing an intellectual development disorder, are asking the court to find him not criminally responsible and to order him detained for psychiatric treatment.

Football: a quiet break, and a clear message

With the league paused for internationals, Sp. Braga president António Salvador used social media to say the club "demands more" than the team has shown so far. Braga are sixth on 11 points with a game in hand. That game, against Gil Vicente, postponed in August after a stomach bug hit the squad, now has a date: 19 October at 20:15. Vitória de Guimarães published their transfer accounts: 23.1 million euros gross from summer sales (16.1 million net), mainly Noah Saviolo and Diogo Sousa, against 2.4 million spent. And Braga's women held Sporting to a 0-0 draw on Sunday, Sporting's first dropped points in the league this season.

Also this week

David Pereira, chief executive of the Guimarães aquarium maker Aquatlantis, died on Tuesday at 50. The family firm, based in Lordelo, had 126 staff and sales of 10.5 million euros in 2024, almost all exported.

A 23-year-old Turkish woman drowned in the Cávado at Barcelinhos on Monday after jumping from a weir. And a PSP officer fired five shots on Sunday night in Braga's Picoto neighbourhood after a driver fleeing a check reversed at speed and then drove at him, police said. The car was found abandoned nearby; no one was hurt.

The week ahead

The comic duo Quim Roscas and Zeca Estacionâncio play the Multiusos de Guimarães tomorrow at 21:30 (9 euros; in Portuguese). The same arena hosts the students' Receção ao Caloiro from 7 to 10 October, starting with Funk On and Kalhambeke (17 euros). Sporting visit Braga on 9 October, and Braga open their Conference League campaign in Copenhagen on 15 October.

See you next Friday.