"This shows that it is a growing segment," said the director, Paulo Vieira.

The figures were released during a colloquium on regional statistics in Funchal, with the presence of representatives of Portugal’s two national statistical authorities – the National Statistics Institute and the Bank of Portugal - as well as those of the Azores, the Canary Islands and the European Commission.

Non-resident buyers of property in Madeira are above all from Germany and the UK, which also provide the bulk of the foreign tourists in the region.

"Another fact that stands out is the loss of purchasing capacity of residents in Venezuela, who in 2012 and 2013 led the list, but who in 2017 do not even appear in the top five,” noted Vieira, explaining this by the social and economic crisis in the country, which has one of the world’s largest communities of people from Madeira.

The study also notes that 14 properties were sold at prices of more than €500,000.

"This is related to ‘golden visas’ – something that is growing in the region," Vieira said, referring to Portugal’s fast-track residency programme for large non-EU investors, though without indicating the buyers’ nationality.

The colloquium also saw the presentation of studies on the food processing and distribution sector and extractive industry in the archipelago, which represent 6.8% and 0.07% of its gross added value. The former sector employs 22,000 people – around 18.3% of total employment in the region - while mining for aggregates has been shrinking since the start of the euro-zone adjustment programme (2012-2015).

"The number of companies went from 27 to just 15 between 2008 and 2017 and this of course has to do with the fact that construction lost importance in the years of the [bailout] and also after the international financial crisis," said Vieira.