Foreign demand, NHR and golden visas

In this chapter

• Buyers with tax residence abroad took about 5% of the homes sold in 2025, and that share has been falling for three years.
• Adding the foreign nationals who live in Portugal, foreign citizens made 27.6% of purchases by households. Most of them live here.
• Buyers from outside the EU paid, on average, twice as much as buyers resident in Portugal.
• The NHR regime was created and closed by PS governments; the golden visa was created by the PSD/CDS government and closed to property by the PS.

Three populations, three denominators

In 2025, buyers with tax residence abroad bought 8,471 homes (−13.3%), for €3.4bn: about 5.0% of homes sold and 8.3% of the value1. But these are the non-residents. Counting also the foreign nationals who live in Portugal, foreign citizens made 41,086 of the 148,632 purchases by households, or 27.6%2.

Who bought homes in 2025: purchases by households

Number of purchases · 148,632 in total · by nationality and tax residence of the buyer

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Fewer buyers, higher prices

Non-residents have never been more than 8% of transactions in the last seven years, and their share by value fell from about 13% at the end of 2023 to 8% in Q2 20253. But they pay more: €234,120 on average for buyers resident in Portugal, €335,640 for those from the EU and €470,277 for the rest4. The Banco de Portugal estimates that foreign buyers, resident or not, can pay on average 43% more for a home5.

How much each buyer paid on average in 2025

Average price per home sold · euros · by the buyer's tax residence

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A local effect

Foreign demand is concentrated in the Algarve, Lisbon and Madeira. A 2026 Banco de Portugal study points to the Algarve as a case of inelastic supply combined with investment-driven non-resident demand6. The 2024 study considers the effect of foreign demand on the national median price “generally limited”, without ruling out spillovers to other areas7.

The largest group of foreign buyers lives in Portugal: Brazilians bought 9,808 homes in 2025, 23.9% of purchases by foreign nationals. Foreign nationals took out 11.7% of mortgage contracts in 2025, against 6.1% in 20218. This part of “foreign” demand is linked to immigration, not to external investment.

NHR and golden visas: who created them and who ended them

The Non-Habitual Resident (NHR) regime was created in 2009 by José Sócrates’s PS government and closed to new entrants by the 2024 State Budget of António Costa’s PS government, with a transitional regime and a narrower replacement, IFICI9. It had 114,645 beneficiaries in 2023, and the tax expenditure rose from €620m in 2019 to €1,741m in 202410.

The residence permit for investment (golden visa) was created in 2012 by Passos Coelho’s PSD/CDS government, during the assistance programme. The Costa government restricted the property route to the interior and the autonomous regions from 2022 and ended it in 2023, with the Mais Habitação programme. Between 2012 and September 2023 there were 12,718 permits and €6,450m of investment, about 3% of the value of housing transactions in the period11.

In 2026 the Montenegro government set a flat IMT (property transfer tax) rate of 7.5% on home purchases by non-residents, with three exceptions: the buyer is already tax resident, becomes tax resident within two years, or rents the home at a moderate rent for at least 36 months12. It did not reopen the property route of the golden visa.