Rents Fall Quarter-on-Quarter in Lisbon and Porto

April 29, 2021 – Ana Custódio

During the first quarter of 2021, the average rental cost of the 19,472 new rental contracts in Portugal stood at €5.80/m2.

The data stems from the Statistics on Housing Rents at a local level, conducted by the National Statistics Institute. The figure represents a year-on-year change of +5.5% in the country, higher than that in the previous quarter (+3.8%).  There was a reduction in the number of new rental contracts in the country compared to the first quarter of 2020 (-6.5%). The analysis showed that the change in rents was not uniform: rents fell in 10 of the 24 municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants.

The metropolitan areas with the highest number of new rental contracts, together with year-on-year declines in average rents, were the municipalities of Lisbon (-9.2%), Porto (-6.7%), Oeiras (-6.2%), Odivelas (-3.1%) and Almada (-1.1%).

In the first quarter of 2021, the Autonomous Region of the Azores (+6.5%), Ave (+2.3%) and Cávado (+1.2%) were the only regions where the number of new leases increased in comparison to the same period in the previous year. According to INE, the number of new contracts decreased in the remaining sub-regions, with the Alto Alentejo (-27.6%), Baixo Alentejo (-20.0%) standing out. The average rent increased in 17 of the 25 sub-regions, of which Terras de Trás-os-Montes (+27.1%), Alto Minho (+11.2%) and Viseu Dão Lafões (+9.4%) posted the greatest year-on-year increases.

Rents fell in Lisbon, Porto, and Almada, compared to the same period of the previous year. Amongst the 24 municipalities with over 100,000 inhabitants, only four reported increases in rents above the national average: Gondomar (+12.0%), Guimarães (+9.8%), Loures (+7.6%) and Santa Maria da Feira (+8.3%). In the latter case, there was a substantial reduction in the number of new leases.

There was also an increase in the number of new rental contracts in Barcelos (+13.4%), Vila Nova de Famalicão (+8.3%), Almada (+4.5%), Porto (+3.4%), Lisbon (+3.1%) and Braga (+2.0%).

The INE has indicated that of the 24 municipalities with more than 100,000, all the municipalities in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, with the exception, in the latter, of Santa Maria da Feira and Gondomar, registered median rents with higher levels than the national, but with varying year-on-year changes.

Translation: Richard D K Turner