Foreign buyers from 31 countries buy homes in Lisbon during confinement

By Natasha Donn [email protected]

Foreign buyers were not put off from buying homes in Portugal in 2020 despite the pandemic according to estate agents.

That is the message from estate agents in various parts of the country, not least the Algarve which has seen a surge in interest from rural properties with their own water and good wi-fi connections.
In Lisbon, which in the first three month of the year saw investors from 49 countries purchasing property to the tune of €238.8 million — business may have fallen, but has remained eminently respectable.
Figures just released for the second quarter show buyers from 31 nationalities still managed to get through all the bureaucratic red tape of confinements and travel restrictions to sign the deeds on 233 properties with a combined value of €112.3 million.
The weekend newspaper Expresso says the majority of buyers were Chinese (33%), followed by French (13%), Brazilians (7%), US citizens (6%) and Britons (5%).