Portugal officially collects and publishes statistics on real estate transactions involving foreign buyers, but the publicly available data is usually aggregated by group (Portuguese buyers, EU residents, non-residents/non-EU), without a detailed breakdown by nationality. Detailed rankings of buyer countries are usually provided by specialized analytical companies and media based on real estate network databases.
According to data from the Portuguese National Statistics Institute (INE), in 2023, foreigners accounted for about 7.6% of all home purchases in the country, but provided approximately 13% of the total value of transactions. At the same time, buyers from non-EU countries pay an average of around €405,000 per property, while foreigners from the EU pay around €277,000, and the average market price is around €200,000.
In some regions, the proportion of foreigners is much higher. In the Algarve, they account for about 27% of all transactions and up to 38% of the total sales value, with 4 out of 5 properties there being purchased by non-residents. In cities, primarily Lisbon and Porto, the share of foreign transactions is smaller, at around 4-6%, but it is in the capital that the most expensive purchases are concentrated.
Private analysts provide a detailed picture by nationality. In Lisbon, according to Confidencial Imobiliário, 4,750 apartments and houses worth €2.22 billion were sold in the Urban Rehabilitation Area in 2023, of which 1,580 properties (about a third) were bought by foreigners. Buyers from North America led the way (approximately 16% of all “foreign” transactions), followed by the French (13%) and the British (9%). Chinese, Brazilian, and German investors also had a significant presence.
In the Algarve, according to estimates by Engel & Völkers, British buyers predominate, but there is also an active presence of citizens from Germany, France, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands; interest from Americans is growing noticeably.
Based on this data and market reviews, we can identify a conditional “top 10” of the most active foreign buyers of Portuguese real estate (by number of transactions and total investment volume):
Investors under the previous “golden visa” scheme (primarily from China, Brazil, Turkey, the US, and South Africa) are listed separately, but following the reform of the program, their share is gradually being redistributed in favor of “regular” transactions.
Thus, Portugal publishes official data on the share and prices of transactions with foreigners, but a detailed map by nationality is based mainly on research by specialized agencies and market analysts. Taken together, they show that demand is primarily driven by investors from Western Europe, North America, and Brazil, while the role of buyers from Eastern Europe and the CIS remains niche.
