Portugal's housing crisis reaches new extremes

The median rent for a one-bedroom flat in Lisbon now stands at around €784 a month — swallowing 85% of a minimum-wage pay check.

The median rent on new lease agreements in Portugal reached €9.46 per square metre in the first quarter of 2026, a year-over-year rise of 9.1% that accelerated from 7.9% in the previous quarter, according to INE's local-level Housing Rent Statistics — a total of 39,395 new lease agreements, itself up 0.7% on the same quarter last year.

01 The inland–coastal divide

The data, drawn from INE's quarterly rent index, shows a clear divide between inland and coastal Portugal. The cheapest region, Terras de Trás-os-Montes in the interior North, sits at €4.24/m² — while Greater Lisbon has crossed the €14/m² threshold for the first time, and Lisbon itself, the Autonomous Region of Madeira, the Setúbal Peninsula, the Algarve and Greater Porto make up the five most expensive areas in the country.

The median rent rose year-over-year in all 24 municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Vila Nova de Famalicão saw the sharpest increase, up 15.1%, while Lisbon — already the country's most expensive municipality at €17.42/m² — actually grew more slowly than the national average, at 8.2%.

02 The map

Price per m² Rent for a 1-bedroom (45 m²)

03 Method & caveats

Municipalities without their own published figure inherit the price of their sub-region (NUTS III). A one-bedroom flat is assumed to be 45 m². All values are medians of new lease contracts, not of the existing stock — the figures therefore describe what a tenant entering the market pays today.