Foreign direct investment in Portugal fell by 34.9% in 2025 to €8.51 billion, of which €3.905 billion relates to real estate, according to data released today by the Bank of Portugal (BdP).

Foreign direct investment transactions in Portugal in 2025 fell from €13.071 billion in the previous year, while direct investment in real estate grew by 10.4% in the same period.

In turn, investment in debt instruments “was negative by €3.4 billion, reflecting, in part, the reorganisation of economic groups”.

European countries investment

European countries were the ones that invested the most in Portugal last year (€5.775 billion), with Luxembourg (€1.1 billion), the United Kingdom (around €900 million) and Germany (€800 million) standing out.

On the other hand, Portugal’s direct investment transactions abroad totalled €6.704 billion (€7.593 billion in 2024).

The value of Portugal’s direct investment abroad is explained by investment in the capital of non-resident entities (around €4.2 billion) and in debt instruments of close to €2.5 billion.

The investment was also made mainly in entities resident in mainland Europe, totalling €5,838 million, with investment in the Netherlands (around €2,300 million), Spain (€1,700 million) and France (€600 million) standing out.

Taking these transactions into account, at the end of 2025, the stock of foreign direct investment in Portugal stood at €213.731 billion, up from €201.384 billion a year earlier, equivalent to 70% of Portuguese GDP.

Portugal’s stock of direct investment abroad rose by 9.2% to €78.62 billion, close to 26% of Portuguese GDP.

The data released by the regulator adds that property income from capital holdings resulted in foreign direct investment income paid to non-residents of €13.4 billion - about €1.4 billion higher than a year earlier - and Portuguese investment abroad of €5.4 billion, a figure similar to that of 2024.

In terms of distribution across the country, Greater Lisbon had the highest foreign direct investment value: €105.4 billion, followed by the North (€37.2 billion) and the Algarve (€21.7 billion).