According to the consulting company CBRE, foreign investment in Portugal, having beaten a record in 2018 by reaching around 3500 million euros (3.5 billion), has kept a high tendency in 2019, despite more moderate values (between 2500 and 3000 million euros). It’s projected that the first quarter of 2020 will keep this high trend.
According to estimates released by the APEMIP (Analysis Department of the Portuguese Association of Professional Real Estate Mediators and Real Estate Companies), during the first semester of 2019, foreign investment represented around 16% of all transactions in this field. Regarding the type of clients, the French constitute the group of foreigners that has invested the most in the purchase of properties in Portugal, representing 21% of all the buyers, according to data released by the Portuguese Statistics Institute. This tendency should persist and even accentuate, along with the diversification of this type of investment in areas with a lower population density. Following the French clients, are the investors from the United Kingdom and from Brazil, that have grown significantly in numbers, with each now representing around 18% of the market. They are followed by investors from Germany with 9%, and from China, with 7% of the total. The tendency is for these positions to remain rather unchanged, despite the doubts that the Brexit plan is still rousing within the European context.
It’s important to mention that a large part of these acquisitions by non-residents is concentrated around the Lisbon Metropolitan area and in Algarve; according to the figures released by the Portuguese Statistics Institute, they account to 39.5% and 35.9% of the total, respectively. It was also in the Lisbon Metropolitan area that the average value of these purchases was the highest (322,5 thousand euros). However, and despite the higher demand in these two zones as well as in the Oporto Metropolitan area, the fact is, that international clients are discovering and getting interested in other areas of the country, like Setúbal, the Western region and Coimbra, among other areas.
Article in a Bestguide and Porta da Frente partnership