Living, buying and investing in Lisbon

Lisbon at a glance for expat buyers

Lisbon is Portugal's capital and largest expat property market. Around 545,000 people live in the city itself, with another 2.5 million in the wider metropolitan area. Average asking prices reached roughly €5,450 per square metre in early 2026, with central neighborhoods like Chiado and Príncipe Real frequently above €8,000/m². The expat-buyer share is the highest in Portugal — roughly one in four central-Lisbon transactions in 2024 involved a foreign buyer (Idealista 2024 foreign-buyer report). Lisbon's mix of climate (≈290 sunny days per year), direct flights to most European capitals and the US east coast, established international schools, and a dense network of English-speaking lawyers, accountants and notaries makes it the lowest-friction first move for most expat buyers. The trade-off is price: Lisbon central has seen 60-80% nominal growth since 2015, and central yields have compressed sharply.