"Are foreigners still interested in real estate in Portugal?"?"

In recent years, Portugal has become attractive to foreign property investors. They have been actively purchasing real estate in the country and revitalizing various market segments, from residential to commercial.

At the same time, the country (and the whole world) has experienced a pandemic and is now facing the consequences of an economic and financial crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, which seems endless. In the international context, marked by high inflation and rising interest rates set by the European Central Bank (ECB), Portugal has found itself in a housing crisis, and many industry representatives point to instability, including legislative, related to the termination of the Golden Visa program under the Mais Habitação program.

What to expect from the future? Will foreign investors, particularly Americans, continue to be interested in Portugal? In response to these and other questions, experts interviewed by idealista/news say the following:

"I don't feel that Americans are stopping their investments in real estate in Portugal; on the contrary, interest from clients in the U.S. continues to grow. This is primarily due to their interest in the country and the fact that prices here are lower than in the U.S.

- says Diogo Capela, lawyer and partner at the law firm Lamares, Capela & Associados.

However, according to Bloomberg, more and more Americans are leaving Portugal due to high housing costs. In another article, the publication writes that the focus is now shifting to the Spanish island of Mallorca. Nuno Garcia, the executive director of GesConsult, also supports this idea. "Over the past three years, we have witnessed what can be called a 'love affair' between Americans and our country (...). Now we are starting to see that this 'new American dream' is beginning to crumble. The influx of a large number of foreigners, whose purchasing power significantly exceeds that of the Portuguese, has led to a sharp rise in housing prices, which seems to hinder the idea that Portugal can serve as an affordable country for settlement."

- he says.