According to the most recent report “Portuguese Resorts Market Report”, produced by Confidencial Imobiliário in partnership with the Portuguese Association of Residential Tourism and Resorts, operators' expectations regarding the volume of transactions for homes in resorts are at a 3-year high, which represents a strong increase in confidence in market performance.

In addition to the improvement in the macroeconomic situation, these more optimistic perspectives are also influenced by the recovery in sales in the residential market. Regarding prices, operators have not changed their expectations, with the general perception that resort values ​​will remain stable.

This optimism revealed now comes after the first half of 2024 marked by a reduction in transactional activity in the resort market, with a sharp drop in sales of this type of housing compared to the previous half. This would have been an effect of the end of foreign investment incentive schemes, namely Golden Visas, since, along with the reduction in the number of transactions, a reduction in the range of nationalities active in most destinations was also observed. It is worth mentioning the example of resorts located on the Atlantic Coast, where in the 1st half of 2024 foreign investment was dominated by Brazilians, in contrast to the 2nd half of 2023 where there were buyers from 9 nationalities.

On the contrary, the Albufeira-Loulé axis, which is the destination for the most consolidated resorts, increased the number of purchasing nationalities, going from 5 in the 2nd half of 2023 to 8 in the 1st half of 2024. The British are the main foreign buyers of resorts in this geography but reduced their share from 62% to 47% between the two semesters under analysis.


In the 1st half of 2004, sales prices for homes in resorts increased by 5.9% compared to the 1st half of 2023. After a cycle of strong increases that led to prices reaching a record annual increase of 26.6% In H1 2023, resort appreciation levels now follow the general trend of the residential market, possibly as a result of price levels already achieved in this specific market.

Also noteworthy is the reinforcement of prices in the high range, reflecting the greater influx of new homes. In the 1st half of 2024, the value of houses in luxury resorts approached €11,000 per square meter, exceeding €10,000 per square meter for the first time in all four monitored regions and varying between a minimum of €10,450/m2 in Sotavento of the Algarve and a maximum of €12,250/m2 on the Atlantic Coast, the coastal axis that extends from the West region to the Alentejo Coast.

In the 2nd quarter of this year, Albufeira, Lagos, and Loulé, three of the main residential markets in the Algarve, stabilized house sales prices, showing residual variations compared to the previous quarter. According to the Residential Price Index, Loulé, which is the most expensive market in the region and one of the largest in terms of demand (15% of sales), presented a quarterly variation of 0.2% in sales prices, while in Lagos (10% share) the price fluctuation was 0.6%.

In the case of Albufeira, which accounts for 12% of regional sales, the variation was equally residual, even entering negative territory, reaching -0.5%. The behavior of these three municipalities, which between them account for more than a third of the Algarve's housing market in terms of sales volume, impacted the aggregate price performance in the region, which in the quarter in question registered a chain variation of 0.4%.

According to Pedro Fontainhas, Executive Director of the Portuguese Association of Residential Tourism and Resorts: “The results of this report confirm that there remains continued interest from investors, both national and international, in purchasing villas in resorts in Portugal. Despite the 1st half of 2024 being marked by the slowdown in the market, essentially due to the end of Golden Visas decided by the previous government, we now see positive signs translated by forecasts for sales of resort villas among our members, which are at 3-year highs. Expectations for the rest of the year are very auspicious, anticipating that the market will continue to prosper, with a continued appreciation of properties in areas such as the Algarve and Alentejo, which continue to attract interest from national and international investors. The excellence of Portuguese resorts is already recognized throughout the world and these developments are increasingly asserting themselves as places of choice to acquire a property to invest or live in”.

For Ricardo Guimarães, Director of Confidencial Imobiliário: “The residential market, as a whole, has gone through a period of clear cooling in the last two years, essentially resulting from the impact of rising interest rates and inflation. There were fewer sales and a drop in the pace of appreciation. More recently, the macroeconomic improvement recorded has led to the recovery of the market, once again seeing an increase in sales. In the case of Resorts, we end up observing the same type of behavior, and a clear recovery in demand is to be expected, as occurs in the market in general”.