The figures, based on the bank mortgage approval evaluations and an indicator only in effect since 2011, show that the North, Centre and Lisbon Metropolitan Areas put in positive annualised performances with the latter growing the most at 0.9%.


However, all other Portuguese regions turned in a negative result with property on the Atlantic island of Madeira dropping 8.4% over 2014.


Furthermore, the variations depend not only on the location of the property but also its type with a 0.5% increase in apartment prices surging ahead of the 0.3% pick up in the price of homes, closing 2014 at €1,047/m2 and €946/m2 respectively.


Whilst December also saw a 0.1% drop in the average month-on-month valuations, the majority of regions still saw their annualised property values submerged in red.


The Algarve turned in the worst single performance seeing its property down an annualised 5.4% to close the year at €1,223/m2 with December down 1.6% in month-on-month terms.


Whilst that drop yawned to a 3.2% fall in the Alentejo, the National Institute of Statistics also reported that apartments alone, by far the most common housing stock in Portugal, had experienced a nationwide fall in prices of 0.6% in 2014 due to the extent of the regional falls.


Hence, the average price for two and three bedroom apartments closed 2014 with valuations of €1,023m2 and 993/m2 respectively.