Sales Are Down But Prices Are Soaring: The First Half of the Year in the Portuguese Real Estate Market

No matter who you talk to on the street or in the neighborhood in Portugal, the topic always comes back to the same thing: Housing and house prices. The latest data fully confirms this situation that we personally feel in the field.

When we look at the figures announced by the country's largest real estate agency networks for the first half of 2026, there is an interesting picture: The number of housing sales is decreasing, but the money entering the coffers of real estate companies and the total transaction volumes continue to increase. In other words, fewer houses are changing hands in the market, but the houses sold are going for such high prices that agencies are breaking turnover records.

What Do the Numbers Say?

According to data from Confidencial Imobiliário, house sales across Portugal in the January-June period decreased by 7.7% compared to the same period last year, remaining at 75,860 units. While the number of sales is decreasing, the rise in prices does not stop; The housing price index showed a record increase of 18.6% on an annual basis in June.

What is reflected in the balance sheets of the main real estate networks from this table in the market is as follows:

Zome: It was the only network that increased the number of transactions by 11% to 5,563. Transaction volume increased by 10% to 1.19 billion euros, and revenue increased by 7% to 26.75 million euros.

Keller Williams: Although the sales volume remained constant at around 7,300, its revenue increased by 13.3% to 43 million Euros, breaking a record.

Era: Although the number of sales decreased by 1.6% to 6,300, it achieved a revenue of 63.2 million Euros and a transaction volume of 1.24 billion Euros.

Remax: Although it did not share the number of sales, it reported that the transaction volume increased by 3.7% to 4.22 billion Euros. The average sales price of the company jumped from 213,500 Euros to 239,900 Euros in one year.

What is the Real Dynamic That Raises Prices?

The supply shortage in the market is already known, but the main factor that drives incomes and average prices up is the demand from foreign buyers and institutional investors.

According to National Statistics Institute (INE) data, buyers who are taxpayers abroad paid an average of 29.7% more per square meter in the first quarter of the year compared to local buyers. This gap goes up to 34.5% in the Greater Lisbon region and 24.5% in the Algarve. There is a similar situation on the companies and institutional funds side; The average square meter price paid by corporate buyers reached € 2,142, an annual increase of 33.8%.

In summary; Although the number of transactions decreases in the market where supply is limited and foreign and corporate investors enter with high budgets, the value of real estate and therefore the earnings of agencies continue to increase.

Source: ECO News (August 6, 2026), Originally published on Eco.pt.