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Lisbon | ReNews International Desk News
Portugal recorded the world’s strongest growth in real house prices during the first quarter of 2026, even as residential property prices declined across much of the global market.
According to the Bank for International Settlements, real house prices worldwide fell by 1.2% year on year in the first quarter of 2026, compared with a 0.5% decline in the final quarter of 2025. The figures indicate that the pace of decline in global housing prices accelerated at the beginning of the year.
Portugal moved in the opposite direction, with real house prices rising 15.2% year on year, the largest increase among the 57 economies covered by the BIS study. North Macedonia followed with growth of 12.5%, while Bulgaria recorded a 10.8% increase. Across the eurozone, real house prices grew by just 2.6% over the same period.
The BIS said Portugal’s strong performance reflects a persistent imbalance between housing demand and supply. The Portuguese government has reduced VAT on construction to 6% and simplified planning permissions under a revised regulatory framework known as RJUE. However, the BIS said the impact of these measures is unlikely to be visible in the short term.
Separate research by Property Market Index points to a long-term shortage of new housing as another major factor behind Portugal’s property market performance. New build completions averaged only around 21,000 homes a year between 2020 and 2024, compared with approximately 104,000 homes annually during the early 2000s.
Real estate investment has also expanded significantly. Property Market-Index reported that total real estate investment volume in Portugal increased by 51% in 2024, with foreign investors accounting for 81% of the total. Portugal attracted €13.2 billion in foreign direct investment that year, including €3.5 billion directed towards real estate.
Luxury new build property has emerged as one of the fastest-growing segments of the Portuguese market. The national luxury-weighted growth rate reached 12% in 2025, while several major hotspots recorded even stronger gains.
Tróia and Comporta each recorded 18% growth in 2025, with a further 9% increase forecast by the end of 2026. In Lisbon, prices for new luxury properties around Avenida da Liberdade have reached as much as €12,000 per square metre.
Amanda Collinson, spokesperson for Property Market-Index, said Portugal’s property market is outperforming the global trend because its underlying market fundamentals are structurally different. She said demand from international buyers, particularly for luxury new homes, continues to exceed the limited supply available.
Property Market Index forecasts that growth across Portugal’s leading property hotspots will remain more than twice the expected rate for the European Union, the United Kingdom and North America until at least 2027.
The figures underline Portugal’s growing position as one of Europe’s strongest performing residential property markets, despite the broader global slowdown in house prices.

Hong Kong’s luxury residential market recorded higher prices and a sharp increase in ultra-luxury transactions in the first nine months of 2026, with mainland Chinese buyers continuing to support demand, according to property consultancy CBRE.

Luxury home prices rose 5.3% year to date and stood 11.3% above the market trough recorded in March 2025. CBRE said the market remained resilient despite greater volatility and uncertainty over interest rates. Activity in the top end of the market accelerated. There were 197 transactions involving properties priced above HK$100 million between January and September, a 109.6% increase from the same period last year. The value of those deals rose 54.9% year on year to HK$28.2 billion.

Mainland Chinese buyers remained a major presence in Q3, accounting for 72% of luxury residential transactions in the primary market and 68% in the secondary market. CBRE said sustained mainland demand and the limited supply of prime residential properties continued to support prices.

Eddie Kwok, the firm’s executive director of valuation and advisory services in Hong Kong, said the luxury market had held up despite interest-rate uncertainty and tighter capital controls. Kwok added that high-net-worth buyers, particularly those from mainland China, continued to drive activity in the ultra-luxury segment, while restricted new supply helped underpin values in prime locations.

Saudi Arabia’s real estate market is drawing investment amid global geopolitical and economic uncertainty, supported by strong domestic demand and efforts to increase housing supply. The Ministry of Municipalities and Housing said more than 15,000 residential plots were made available through the Sakani platform between January and the end of October 2026, alongside projects launched by private developers.

Developer Arada has entered the Saudi market through a partnership with local company XTOPIA, backed by a SAR 50 billion ($13.3 billion) portfolio of land and development opportunities. Their first project is a SAR 14 billion residential development in Riyadh’s Al Rimal district. Separately, Riyadh Region Municipality, the ministry and the National Center for Privatization & PPP have opened the expression-of-interest, prequalification and proposal stages for a joint investment project involving municipal land in northern Riyadh. The 50-year private-sector partnership is the municipality’s first under this model.

More land could help ease price pressures over the medium term if plot locations and sizes match demand. It may also generate work for developers, contractors, engineering firms and building-material suppliers, while supporting homeownership and urban growth beyond major cities.

Real estate developer Ahmed Omar Basoudan told that increasing supply alone would not resolve the market’s challenges. Housing must also be affordable, appropriately located and well serviced, with infrastructure and construction costs kept under control. He said the latest land releases and private projects reflected continued efforts to balance supply and demand as the Kingdom’s population and cities grew.