Portugal is booming, especially for North American tourists. And more and more US citizens even re-move. This has serious consequences for Portugal’s real estate market.
From the south to Lisbon to Lisbon, it drives to San Francisco like on the Highway One. The bridge with its red steel carriers immediately reminds of the Golden Gate Bridge. And so it works almost normally when when visiting the old town of Alfama American English, the tangle of voices dominates the tourists.
From January to July, more than 1.3 million Americans spent their vacation in Portugal-more than German or Spaniards who otherwise put the largest groups of Portugal vacationers alongside British.
Emigration boom after elections
For businesswoman Gilda Peireira, US citizens are currently the best customers. On the American independence day, the “American Club of Lisbon” invited her to the garden festival in a chic ambience. Lampions, tablecloths, napkins – all in the “Stars and Stripes Design”. With her migration agency, Peireira has given various guests her visa or property.
The fact that so many Americans are currently reporting in their agency can stipulate them on a very specific day in November 2024: “The last elections were a boom for us, there were a lot of emails and calls – and then the consultations started.” Many of these new customers wanted to go because they would not be clearly there with the current political situation, reports Peireira. She was not a fan of Trump, but he helped her business.
The trend that more and more Americans move to Portugal began in Trump’s first term. From 2017 to 2024, the number of US citizens living in Portugal has more than sifted, writes the daily Publico. There are now 20,959 – trend is rising.
Portugal retirement seat
Christoph and Marybeth Zimmerman have not yet been counted. They have only moved this year, but the economists had been targeting Portugal for some time as a retirement home. From Washington DC to the tranquil set of Lisbon: They felt welcome and safe, the rooms report from the first few weeks after their move.
Gilda Peireiras agency has done the formalities for them, their special pensioner visa had a quick. Immigrants like the Zimmermans make it easy for Portugal. And the apartment was soon found. “Real estate is extremely expensive in the United States,” explains Zimmerman, “this seems affordable here”. However, it depends heavily on the individual circumstances where you come from in the USA, for example. “We are pensioners. We saved for a lifetime.”
Locals cannot afford real estate
For many Portuguese women, however, real estate is unaffordable, at least in the big cities. Marta and Luis Rodriguez had to move into a dreary suburb. Beyond the beautiful bridge, which by the way built the “American Bridge Company”. They belong to medium -sized companies, earn above the average. But since Marta and Luis have children, they could no longer afford Lisbon, said Marta. “People with a lot of money can buy where they want – and drive up real estate prices.”
According to the European Statistics Institute Eurostat in Portugal, the purchase prices for real estate rose by 16.3 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the previous year. The highest price increase in the EU. And according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the relationship between income and real estate prices has not developed anywhere else in Europe as unfavorable as in Portugal.
With a monthly average income of 1,630 euros, Portuguese have bad cards than home buyers.
Airbnb and hotels drive prices
Price drivers are only partially well -off immigrants, the biggest problem is rentals over platforms or the investors who are behind it. João Teixeira Lopes, professor of sociology at the University of Porto, is observing ever greater social inequalities on the local housing market.
One reason for this is that there is a large number of real estate that are occupied by Airbnb and hotels. “And then there are also houses that are bought by real estate funds where people don’t even live,” said Teixeira Lopes. For many of these funds, it is sufficient to present a real estate portfolio to their investors.
“Builders only want to build in the luxury segment”
And what does politics do? The housing shortage is regularly one of the top issues for citizens in the surveys before the elections. But since the beginning of 2022, the Portuguese have re -elected their parliament three times. Sustainable solutions for the housing problem had neither the socialists who governing until March 2024 nor the conservative alliance, which has been in office since then.
For years they attracted investors and real estate buyers from abroad with “golden visas”. While there are hardly any social housing and cooperatives that build affordable living space have difficulties to assert themselves on the market. Expert Teixeira Lopes complains that it is now even difficult in Portugal to build public buildings such as schools or houses for the needy. “Even when there is money, the builders only want to build in the luxury segment.”
The current government announces that it is now doing something for a larger range of housing, but so far this has only been on paper. And so the locals should continue to find it difficult to assert themselves against rich immigrants, digital nomads or tourists on the housing market. More and more Portuguese are giving way to the suburbs. For them, the journey across the bridge a la Golden Gate should be a daily nervous traffic jam experience than a nice holiday memory.
