Buying a house to rent in Portugal yields less in early 2026

Buying a house to rent out is becoming less profitable this year according to the online estate agency and property market analysts Idealist.

The gross profitability of buying a house in Portugal for the rental market stood at 6.3% in the first quarter of 2026, down 0.9 percentage points (p.p.) from the same period in 2025 (7.2%) and 1 p.p. from the first quarter of 2024 (7.3%), according to data from Idealista. Compared to the same period in 2019, when the profitability of housing was 7.5%, the return fell by 1.2 p.p.

Analysing by district capitals and autonomous regions, Braganza offers the highest profitability for buying a house for investment, with a return of 8%. The following are Castelo Branco (7.9%), Coimbra (6.5%), Santarém (6.5%), Leiria (6.1%), Évora (5.8%), Braga (5.6%), Ponta Delgada (5.6%), Setúbal (5.4%) and Viana do Castelo (5.2%).

Aveiro, Faro and Funchal also have returns of 5%, while Porto shows a return of 4.9% and Viseu of 4.7%.

At the opposite extreme, the lowest residential profitability is observed in Lisbon (4.3%).

Offices and shops outperform housing in profitability

This analysis also allowed for the evaluation of the profitability of other real estate products nationwide. Offices provide a return of 8.2%, shops 8.1% and garages 5.5%.

To conduct this analysis, idealista divided the sale price by the rental value requested by owners in different markets in the first quarter of 2026. The result obtained corresponds to the gross profitability that renting a house provides to its owner. This data allows for an analysis of the current state of the market and is a basic starting point for all investors who wish to buy real estate assets to generate income.

Source: Idealista; Credits: Louis Droege for Unsplash