‘Waving not drowning’ – Portugal’s property market settles into sustained growth after dizzying boom years

Text and Photo: Chris Graeme.

Portugal’s annual property show SIL (Salão Imobiliário de Lisboa) seemed more subdued this year as I wandered the stands and aisles of the capital’s trade fair venue FIL in Lisbon’s Parque das Nações.

People spoke softly, the usual hubbub was missing, and a creeping lack of confidence permeated the air.

Strange really, when you consider that according to the official figures the event, which opened on Thursday, April 23 and continued until Saturday, April 25, suggested significant growth since last year.

The people were there, but the excitement was lacking. Has the event lost its shine or are delegates suppressing fears of a wider recession that could make investors shy and scare off home buyers?

Once again, this year’s event – the biggest property fair in the country – was held in tandem with the fair devoted to the Construction industry, Tektónica, benefitting from synergies between the two necessarily interlinked sectors.

The halls covered 45,000 square metres of space and the organizers expected some 35,000 visitors.

I head over to the DILS stand for my 4pm interview with long-time residential housing market specialist Patrícia Barão.

Patrícia is something of a ‘Torre de force’ in Portuguese real estate circles. She has been the Partner and Head of Residential at DILS Portugal since October 2024, and leads the company’s residential growth strategy, bringing over 20 years of experience, including previous leadership roles at JLL and Herdade da Comporta, and forms part of the senior board with CEO Pedro Lancastre and Senior Partner Fernando Ferreira.

The real estate expert combines that role with that of being president of Portugal’s estate agencies and agents professionals association APEMIP, and is also the founder of WIRE (Women in Real Estate) which started with around 16 members around five years ago, and now has well over a hundred members.

“Ten years ago at real estate conferences there would be one or two women among a room full of men in grey suits. Today, that’s changed and there are a lot more women in property”, she says, which is why she founded WIRE to reflect this shift, and also to inspire and encourage other ladies to join their ranks.

Patrícia is frenetic, firing on 12 cylinders, as she has a score of people to see, several journalists to speak to, and an awards ceremony to attend, but finds 20 minutes in her packed schedule to squeeze me in.

A cooling market?

We start with an overview of the residential housing market in Portugal, which has shown some signs of levelling out after years of progressive and dizzying gains since the Covid-19 crisis five years ago.

I ask Patricia if she has felt the market slowing down, losing its intensity and Patrícia admits the “numbers show this”.

“When we look at the first quarter of 2026, we see it’s down on the like-for-like period in 2025, and also slightly down on the overall picture for last year as a whole.”

“It’s not a sharp fall, but the numbers from the National Statistics Institute (INE) are very clear and back up numbers from Confidencial Imobiliário (an independent real estate survey body) which is what we follow when we look at the indicators”, she says.

An imbalance between supply and demand

Patrícia insists this has nothing to do with a lack of offer (indeed some 73,000 new homes got planning permission last year), although Patrícia does admit that there continues to be an imbalance between supply and demand, which is why house prices in Portugal have continued to rise.

“What’s affected the market in my view is that we had terrible storms in January and February and obviously when 95% of home buyers in Portugal are Portuguese, when you factor in the conflicts in the world, there’s a certain reticence and uncertainty which makes people put off moving or buying, but it’s not a catastrophic fall in demand,” she reassures.

Instead, Patrícia says we’re witnessing a cooling in the market and a ‘wait and see’ attitude from some buyers and movers.

“We’ve got these wars in the Middle East, and we don’t yet know how these are going to impact inflation and interest rates, and don’t forget we had a market contraction in 2023, and that was because we had such a sharp increase in interest rates which automatically reflected in house buying behaviours,” she explained.

Localised impacts

Patrícia says she is positive and optimistic regarding Portugal’s real estate sector this year, but admits that some locations in the country could feel, in some way or another, the impact of geopolitical events, namely in places that attract mostly Portuguese buyers who want to invest, buy a house or a second holiday home.

Yet, on the other hand, Portugal is seen as a safe haven for overseas investors and relocants during times of crisis, and Portugal can and “already is” attracting buyers, she confirms.

“Certainly, whenever we see an international conflict or a conflict of division as we’re seeing within the United States, we’re automatically seeing an increase in searches on our website, and we’ve seen an increase from places like Dubai and the Gulf states, not just the United States of America.”

Different locations for different nationalities

When it comes to nationalities surfing the DILS Portugal website, or making purchases for that matter, these are led by Brazilians, Americans and, surprise, surprise! – the Brits with the French trailing behind all these.

Then there are specific locations like Comporta (the Hamptons of Portugal) on the Alentejo coast where DILS is commercialising the Aroeira Collections through its estate agency Castelhana Real Estate.

These properties that market for over a million in some cases are aimed at HNWI and UHNWI but also the Affluent segment. Within a much wider catchment area other  properties range from €300,000 at the lowest end to €600,00 and upwards in the premium market.

“What we’re seeing is that 60% of the people searching are Portuguese and 40% are international, and these also include the Spanish and German.

“These are the nationalities that look at the Alentejo coast because they seek open spaces, nature, peace and quiet, and sustainability,” the real estate specialist confirms.

So, it depends on locations and different locations attract different nationality buyer profiles. Lisbon, for example, attracts US citizens; the Brazilians are more into Cascais.

A 25-year record

But how did DILS Portugal do as a business in 2025 and how is 2026 shaping up so far?

Although the company doesn’t talk about specific turnover numbers at a country level, Patrícia Barão reveals that it was a record year in 2025 for the entire 25-year history of Castelhana (which is now effectively DILS).

“Our numbers in Portugal are 20% up on 2024 which was fantastic, and for the first quarter of this year we’re also up 20% on the same period last year in terms of new contracts”, she confides.

Part of this is down to launching new projects. In 2025, DILS Portugal (formerly Castelhana) launched and managed several new high-profile residential developments, expanding its portfolio in Lisbon, Porto, and the Algarve.

Key developments highlighted in 2025 include:

Terraços do Monte (Lisbon – Graça): A new luxury private condominium in the historic heart of Lisbon, featuring exclusive views and high-end design, marketed in co-exclusive with JLL.

Pousio (Porto): A new residential development launched exclusively by Dils in Porto.

NoLiPa – Modern Lisbon Lifestyle (Lisbon – Campo Grande): A new family-oriented residential project featuring AQUA+ certification, photovoltaic panels, and close proximity to the Campo Grande Garden.

Vertice (Lisbon – Campo Pequeno): A new residential development situated in a central area of Lisbon, featuring a large central garden and designed in compliance with ESG principles, including solar energy systems.

1965 Cidade Jardim (Loures/Lisbon): An innovative residential development located near the Encosta de Santo António dos Cavaleiros.

Edifício Bahuto (Lisbon – Campo de Ourique): A boutique project comprising only four apartments, focusing on privacy and neighborhood life.

Foz do Tejo (Jamor): A major project located in a 28-hectare area near Lisbon.

Central Freixo (Porto): A development project designed by renowned architect Souto de Moura, for which Dils provides brokerage and strategic positioning services.

Antas Atrium (Porto – Phase II): Construction for Phase II began in Q1 2025, offering units from studios to T3 duplexes, with completion scheduled for 2026. 

President of APEMIP

Our conversation moves away from DILS Portugal to draw on Patricia’s role as the president of APEMIP (Portuguese Estate Agencies and Estate Agents Association).

Twenty years ago there was a widely-held perception in the UK and Europe (and not just Portugal), that estate agents were a little like second-hand car salesmen; pushy, opportunistic, somewhat dodgy and full of bull****. Just think of the character Swiss Toni in the UK 1990s comedy and you’ll get the picture.

Not any more. Portugal has seen a complete revolution in standards and the way that agents sell housing, which today is empathetic, transparent, ethical, polite, and professional.

This move away from the traditional ‘duckers and divers’ image has taken 10 years, particularly since the Great Recession in Portugal from 2008-2014 when estate agents suffered horrendously from a collapse in the housing market, and agents realised they could no longer take customers for granted and had to up their game if they wanted to survive.

“It’s changed a lot! Today, I’m proud to say that I’m an estate agent because that paradigm which you’ve referred to was true back then, and thankfully has completely changed and the panorama couldn’t be more different”.

Greater professionalization

One of the great missions at APEMIP is to value the work of estate agents in the sector through professionalisation and training.

“Today, it is mandatory for anyone wanting to work in the real estate sector as an agent to have a certain amount of training and have to update their training if they want to continue to be an estate agent, and this includes working towards certification if they want to have the right to be a real estate agent.

“So, as is the case with AMI (Estate Agents License) at the INPIIC (National Institute for Industrial Property) where you can see if an estate agency has a licence, so too you can see if an estate agent is qualified and has a license to practice with a certified member number, because that’s the only way a buyer can have the confidence that the agent they are dealing with is qualified to advise on the value and best price their property should be put on the market for”, she assures.

“This ensures that not any old person who spends part of the day doing one job and sells houses during another can offer to sell a property at a price they simply have dreamt up in their heads,” Patricia Barão adds.

Today, an estate agent in Portugal has to know the market, do a professional job, show comparative properties and statistics on sales for different types of properties in different areas, and have the qualifications and a licence to sell.

Finally, I ask Patricia if the market is over awash with estate agents to which she replies: “I think there are sufficient estate agents to meet market demands. What’s most important for me is that the ones that do operate are professional and qualified to do do.”