Data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), with reference to the country’s 24 municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, show that, between January and March, Lisbon was the only municipality with a year-on-year reduction in the median price (-7.9 percent) and Oeiras the only municipality in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area with an increase in the median price of housing (+6.9 percentage points).

The median price of family accommodation, in the 1st quarter, was 1,241 euros/square meter (m2), reflecting increases of 4.5 percent compared to the previous quarter, between October and December 2020, and 3.1 percent compared to the first quarter of 2020, with the INE recording an evolution of the rate from 7.8 percent to 3.1 percent between the 4th quarter of 2020 and the 1st quarter of this year, which it says “shows” a slowdown in house prices, interrupting the acceleration seen in the last quarter.

In the first three months of the year, as in the previous quarter, between October and December 2020, the highest prices were registered in the Algarve sub-regions (€1,755 per square metre, up 4.3 percent over the same period last year), from the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (€1,685 , up 4.1 percent) and from the Porto Metropolitan Area (€1,333, up 3.1 percent).

Also the Autonomous Region of Madeira (€1,402 per square metre) recorded a median price higher than the country’s, but with a year-on-year increase (1.4 percent) lower than the national one, according to data from INE.

The biggest decrease, of 19.3 percent, was registered in the region of Beira and Serra da Estrela, as well as the lowest median sale price of family accommodation (€476 per square metre).

Lisbon continues to register the highest average price of the country’s municipalities (€3,257 per square metre), followed by Cascais (€2,936), Oeiras (€2,536), Porto (€2,282) and Odivelas (€2,071).

Of the 24 municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, with the exception of Lisbon, Santa Maria da Feira and Gondomar, all municipalities in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto recorded, simultaneously, median housing prices and year-on-year rates of change higher than the rest of the country.