Housing demand increases 7.5% in Lisbon in Q1

Demand for houses rose 7.5% in Lisbon and fell 5.6% in Porto in the first quarter of 2022.

Nevertheless, both regions continue to be the most sought after by home hunters with Lisbon leading at 23.5%, followed by Porto at 42%.
This is according to data published by Imovirtual which saw buoyant demand in the districts of Braga (13.7%); Setúbal (9.4%), Faro (6.9%), Aveiro (6.2%), Leiria and Santarém (4.9% in both).
However, demand for houses fell in Guarda (11.4%) and Viseu (8.6%).
A greater interest in buying houses in the interior of Portugal has been a growing trend over the past two years, with 2021 registering a total increase of 14% on 2020 and 51% in relation to 2019.
Ricardo Feferbaum, the general director of Imovirtual stresses, “It is interesting that more and more house hunters are buying in Aveiro, Leiria and Santarém, regions with a great potential for development and growth, in line with a decentralisation trend and move towards the interior.
From January 2022 changes to Portugal’s Golden Visa scheme came into force which stipulated that applicants interested in authorisation for residency through investment via the property investment path, could not longer buy property in Lisbon, Porto or certain part of the coastal tourist-dense Algarve.