New south bank airport provokes 30% increase in house prices

House prices on the south side of Lisbon’s River Tagus have shot up 30% because Lisbon’s second airport will be built in the area.

Property in Montijo and Alcochete has over the past two years seen the greatest increases and at double the rate of average growth seen in the rest of the country for the same period.

The Memorandum of Understanding for the site of the supplementary airport at Montijo was signed this week between the Portuguese government and ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal, the company whose national airports are run by the French company Vinci.

The new airport will be built by converting a military base at Montijo into a civil airport while at the same time existing facilities at Lisbon’s international Humberto Delgado airport will be expanded. The new airport should be operational by 2022.

House prices on the south bank began rising from 2016 when it was almost certain that the government would opt to build a new airport at either Montijo or Alcochete.

At the beginning of 2017 the Government and ANA committed to the Montijo solution which was made formal by a signing of contracts on Tuesday.

Houses have more than recovered their pre-crisis values and the site of the new airport as a contributory factor cannot be ignored said the only estate agent in Samouco, the parish where the military air base is located.

From the first quarter of 2016 until the second quarter of 2018, the latest period for which data is available, property prices rose 16.7% on average, standing at an average value of €969 per square metre.

In the other boroughs on the south bank of the river prices have remained below this average value except Montijo and Alcochete where prices have shot up.

In Montijo they climbed 30.6% with the price per square metre at €956 while in Alcochete prices soared 35.5% to €1,263 per square metre.