"Foreigners are looking for real estate in Portugal with a sea view, rural houses, and farms."

Imovirtual, a leading real estate portal, has carried out an analysis of the demand for homes among foreigners in Portugal. Based on the data available on the platform, it was found that more than 15 million house ads were viewed in the last 6 months by foreigners.

Portugal continues to be a popular destination for foreign real estate investment, as many choose to move here and buy or rent a home. The reasons for this are diverse, including the mild climate, which provides a better quality of life, safety, the good value for money of the houses, the local friendliness and, just as importantly, the gastronomy. These advantages have led to an increase in the foreign population living in Portugal.

Around 24% of the portal's users are foreigners, with significant traffic coming from the United States of America, Brazil, France, Switzerland, Andorra, the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany and Angola. Currently, users from the United States of America lead searches, accounting for 8% of the total, an increase of 22% on last year. However, if we consider North American users who have never searched for a home on the Imovirtual portal, the figure rises to 24%. In second place is Brazil, which fell by 12%, as did Spain (-7%) and Germany (-3%). On the other hand, France and Switzerland grew by 5%. It's important to note that although the number of users is lower compared to the countries mentioned above, Andorra has seen a 60% growth compared to 2022 and a 66% increase in new users.

With regard to the profile of foreign users wishing to buy a house, it was found that the majority are young and there are significant differences compared to the Portuguese.

Sale shop in Porto 371 212,00 $

Portugal,Porto

74 м²

Sale flat in Fara with sea view 604 545,00 $

Portugal,Fara

1 Bedroom

89 м²

Sale other properties in Valencia 609 428,00 $

Spain,Valencia

4 Bedrooms

2 Bathrooms

298 м²

Sale flat in Mijas 278 663,00 $

Spain,Mijas

2 Bedrooms

2 Bathrooms

97 м²

Sale flat in Mantua 238 636,00 $

Spain,Mantua

3 Bedrooms

2 Bathrooms

87 м²

Sale flat in Lisbon 1 283 333,00 $

Portugal,Lisbon

3 Bedrooms

3 Bathrooms

148 м²

While 37% of foreign users looking for a home are up to 34 years old, only 26% of Portuguese users are in the same age group. If we look at the 25 to 34 age group, we see that 25% are foreigners, compared to 16% of Portuguese. Between the ages of 18 and 24, 16% are foreigners and 10% are Portuguese. According to Sylvia Bozzo, Marketing Manager at Imovirtual & OLX Imóveis, "unfortunately, these differences are a reality, as it is increasingly difficult for young Portuguese to leave their parents' home and buy their own home, due to high property prices, high interest rates and low salaries, which prevent this class from having the purchasing power to invest in a home. On the other hand, foreigners who want to live in Portugal have very favorable conditions, including specific tax regimes, such as visas for digital nomads, for example."

When it comes to searches, foreigners mainly look for keywords such as "sea view", "beach", "sea", "swimming pool" and "view", and there is a high demand for farms and estates. On the other hand, the Portuguese value terms such as "100% financing", "garage", "sea view", "beach" and "terrace" more highly. Foreigners behave in a similar way to the Portuguese when it comes to the most searched categories, such as buying and renting apartments and houses, with Lisbon still being the most searched region. However, the category of buying farms and estates is among the five most searched for by foreigners, which is not the case among the Portuguese.