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The Algarve, the sunny southern coast of Portugal, is more popular than ever with visitors, and the region\u2019s housing market\u00a0is booming as\u00a0a result.\u00a0Real estate agency\u00a0Savills says that in the past year, prices for prime properties in the Algarve have risen by more than 30%.<\/p>\n
Agents say the tourism wave is pushing up\u00a0purchases, especially by US buyers who are heading to the country in record numbers: over one million\u00a0tourists from the US visited Portugal in the first half of 2024, nearly\u00a0double the number<\/a>\u00a0of visitors in the same time period in 2022, according to the country\u2019s national statistics agency.<\/p>\n Visitors flock,\u00a0in particular,\u00a0to the Algarve\u2014home to under 500,000 residents\u2014for its famous sandy beaches, scenic fishing towns\u00a0and year-round temperate\u00a0weather. Starting in 2025,\u00a0United Airlines<\/a> will have a direct flight from Newark to the town of Faro, the gateway to the region.<\/p>\n \u201cThe top of the property market in the Algarve has historically been predominantly British buyers, but it\u2019s changing,\u201d says Kerstin Buechner, co-owner of\u00a0Quinta Properties,<\/a>\u00a0the Savills affiliate in the region.<\/p>\n She says Americans went from less than 1%\u00a0of buyers for high-end homes in the Algarve pre-pandemic to\u00a0become what she calls a \u201csubstantial percentage\u201d today. According to the Portuguese Property Association, 10% of all foreign buyers in the country are American. \u201cIf you walk around Loul\u00e9, every second person is American now,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n Tourists with the stronger dollar\u00a0are having an impact on prices. The first sale of over \u20ac20 million, a record for the region, took place in 2022, and Buechner says Quinta Properties\u00a0has now since sold several properties at this level. Prime supply is tight as a result, especially in the popular areas of Quinta do Lago and Vale<\/a> do Lobo.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s less on the market than there ever was, and the demand is light years ahead of what we used to have,\u201d she says. Average prime sale prices for Quinta Properties\u00a0neared \u20ac3.5 million in 2023, up from under\u00a0\u20ac3 million the previous year.<\/p>\n Ricardo Costa,\u00a0chief executive officer of Luximos, the Christie\u2019s International Real Estate affiliate in Portugal, has also seen a rise in foreign demand for homes in the Algarve and cites\u00a0the country\u2019s digital nomad program<\/a>\u00a0as a key reason. Remote workers from outside the European Union can live in Portugal if they have a monthly income of at least \u20ac3,280 and\u00a0savings of at least \u20ac9,840.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople like the mild weather, the surf conditions, the stable politics and that they can do remote work from here only five hours away from the East Coast\u201d of the US, says Costa. \u201cAt the southwestern tip of Europe, we like to say the Americans are our neighbors.\u201d And in the housing market, a\u00a0million euros generally goes much further in Portugal than in other popular tourist areas such as the French Riviera and the Greek islands, or\u00a0in many big cities in the US, he continues.\u00a0<\/p>\n Portugal first became a hot spot for foreign buyers in 2012 after\u00a0the nation\u00a0introduced \u201cgolden visas<\/a>,\u201d which tied residency permits to investment in the country, including real estate purchases. Higher property prices prompted the former government last year to exclude real estate investments from the program, although that hasn\u2019t affected prices in the Algarve.<\/p>\n Foreigners can still qualify for the golden visa by investing at least \u20ac500,000 in investment funds. Other options include donating to cultural or research projects.<\/p>\n \u201cThe golden visa program did cause a frenzy in sales,\u201d says Quinta Properties\u2019\u00a0Buechner, but she adds that the Algarve hasn\u2019t seen a slowdown in foreign buyers.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s not just about the golden visas. Americans are coming into Portugal\u00a0because they\u2019re fed up with the United States and wanting a different lifestyle,\u201d she says. \u201cThe Algarve offers that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nExplore our new special issue.<\/strong>
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