According to Real Estate Association APEMIP, this consolidates a trend noted last year.
Foreign investment in Portugal made up 20 percent of overall real estate transactions during the first quarter of this year.
This figure is down by two percent on last year, and down three percent on the same period of 2014.
However, APEMIP said this could be explained by the number of national transactions having risen over the same period.
In comments to Público, APEMIP chairman Luís Lima said that based on the performance of the real estate market during the first quarter of the year, property sales are likely to increase by “30 to 40 percent” during the course of 2016 in relation to last year.
In terms of foreign buyers, French nationals represented 26 percent of the total, easily overtaking British buyers, who grabbed 18 percent of the market share.
Chinese investors meanwhile covered 13 percent of the market, which is largely due to the Gold Visa programme which has in recent months recovered, following a corruption scandal at the beginning of 2015.
Other notable foreign property buyers are Brazilians with eight percent of the share, followed by Belgians (five percent) and Swiss (four percent).
Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve remain the preferred locations for foreigners to purchase property in Portugal, APEMIP said.