Foreigners buy quarter of homes

A quarter of all properties sold in Portugal last year were sold to foreign buyers, according to a report in Thursday’s edition of the Diário de Notícias. The newspaper writes that a growing number of foreigners, particularly French and Brazilian nationals, were responsible for many of the 150,000 property purchases registered in this country in 2017. Last year also saw a rise of more than 25 percent in terms of property sales on 2016.

The Association of Estate Agents in Portugal (APEMIP) revealed this week that one in four homes sold last year in the country ended up in foreign hands.

While Brazilians and French are queuing up at estate agencies, British and Chinese buyers have also increased their stake in the national real estate market.

Foreigners’ seemingly endless hunger for property in Portugal has also resulted in a strong increase in property prices. Despite prices being catapulted to pre-crisis levels, sales as a whole have continued to rise, and were up by between 25 and 30 percent in 2017. Overall, more than 400 properties were sold every day last year.

