I sent a buyer a villa above Luz a fortnight ago. It was over her budget, not by much, but over. She hasn't replied since. After enough years of this you learn that silence usually isn't rudeness, it's someone quietly working out whether to stretch.

She isn't being awkward, and the reason is in the numbers below. Around six in ten properties listed across the Algarve are apartments, while closer to six in ten buyers are looking for a house. So the thing people actually came here for often isn't on the market at all, and what they get shown instead is either the wrong shape or slightly too expensive.

August's figures are below. Portugal has also just topped a global price table, which doesn't make the stretch any easier.

Steve

+15.2% · Real house price growth, Portugal, Q1 2026. The strongest of the 57 economies the Bank for International Settlements tracks, in a year when real prices fell 1.2% globally. This is after inflation, so it isn't a currency illusion.

€4,631/m² · Lagos asking price, July. Second-priciest municipality in the Algarve behind Loulé at €5,079/m². The region as a whole averaged €4,165/m², up 8.3% on last year.

60.9% · Share of Algarve listings that are apartments. Against 57.3% of buyer demand looking for a house. That gap is the single most useful number in this email if you're searching.

2.50% · Where markets expect the ECB to set rates on 10 September. Three-month Euribor has climbed from 2.03% in January to 2.61% on 1 September. A €150,000 thirty-year mortgage revising this month costs €712 a month, €70 more than a year ago.

£427,743 · What €500,000 cost a UK buyer at the end of August. Against £429,245 at the month's worst point, a spread of about £2,600. A $1m budget bought roughly €861,000 at month-end.

What I'd do with this: Two things. If you're buying, the listing mismatch is the real story of this autumn, not the headline growth rate. Houses are the scarce item, so when a good one appears the queue forms quickly and your budget needs to be decided in advance rather than discovered on the day. If you already own a house here rather than an apartment, you're on the short side of that imbalance, which is a stronger position than most owners realise.

One practical note that has nothing to do with prices. From Saturday 6 September, every non-EU arrival at Faro is registered biometrically under the EU's new Entry/Exit System, photo and fingerprints. First-time registrations elsewhere in Europe have added up to an hour at peak times. If you're flying in for viewings this month, land earlier than you think you need to.

Sources: BIS via The Portugal News, 2 September 2026 (real price growth); idealista, July 2026 (Lagos, Loulé and Algarve asking prices); Imovirtual via Mais Algarve, 10 August 2026 (listing mix versus demand); Euribor-rates.eu, 1 September 2026, and DECO Proteste/Lusa via The Portugal News, 2 September 2026 (rates and mortgage cost); interbank monthly ranges, August 2026 (currency); The Portugal News, 27 August 2026 (Entry/Exit System). General market commentary, not investment, tax or financial advice.

Also this week on the blog: Algarve Hits €3,010/m²: Why Prices Aren't Correcting →

The most useful thing you can do with this email is forward it. Almost everyone I work with arrived through someone they already trusted rather than through an advert. If a friend, a sibling or a colleague has ever said they fancy a place out here, a line from you carries more weight than anything I could pay for.

If it turns into a sale, I look after you properly: 10% of my net commission, paid at completion, no cap. On a typical Western Algarve deal that's comfortably four figures for a five-minute introduction. And if they're headed somewhere other than Portugal, I can still place them with a vetted agent through the eXp network in 25-plus countries, and you still get paid.

Send the intro →