According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE) Housing Rent Statistics at local level, “in the second quarter of 2021 the median rent of 20,568 new rental contracts in Portugal reached 6.03 €/m2 [Euros per square metre], a value that “represents a year-on-year variation of +11.5 percent in the country, higher than that observed in the previous quarter (+5.3 percent)”.

“This growth is thus clearly above the year-on-year rate of change observed in the first quarter of 2021, +5.3 percent, a period also strongly affected by the pandemic context”, he notes.

From April to June, the number of new lease contracts in the country also recorded "a sharp increase compared to the second quarter of 2020 (+49.3 percent), a period particularly affected by the pandemic and by the containment measures implemented to mitigate it".

Compared to the first quarter of 2021, the median rent for the second quarter increased 4.1 percent and the growth in the number of new leases was 3 percent (-9.3 percent in the first quarter).

The median income increased in 20 of the 25 NUTS III sub-regions, with the highest year-on-year growth in the Oeste sub-region (+12.3 percent), Aveiro Region (+11.9 percent), Autonomous Region of Madeira (+11.3 percent) and Porto Metropolitan Area (+10.2 percent).

The highest rents were registered in the Metropolitan Area of ​​Lisbon (8.82 €/m2), Algarve (6.96 €/m2), Metropolitan Area of ​​Porto (6.40 €/m2) and Autonomous Region of Madeira (6.32 €/m2).

The lowest value of rents from new lease contracts was registered in Terras de Trás-os-Montes (2.79 €/m2) and in Alto Alentejo (2.80 €/m2).

In the second quarter of 2021, all NUTS III sub-regions registered an increase in the number of new lease contracts compared to the same period of the previous year, with the Lisbon Metropolitan Area concentrating around one third of new lease contracts (7,171).

Together, the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto accounted for 53 percent of the country's total new contracts and the Algarve for 6.3 percent, while Baixo Alentejo had the lowest number of new lease contracts (108).