Living, buying and investing in Olhão

Olhão at a glance for expat buyers

Olhão is the working fishing capital of the eastern Algarve — roughly 45,000 permanent residents across the municipality, sitting directly on the Ria Formosa lagoon about 8km east of Faro. It is the Algarve town that has changed fastest in the last decade: until around 2015 international buyers largely ignored it, and from roughly 2017 onwards it became one of the region's strongest 'character town' markets. Average asking prices reached approximately €2,750 per square metre in early 2026, cheaper than Tavira or Faro but rising faster than either. What draws foreign buyers is the authenticity. Olhão has no resort sprawl, no golf, no purpose-built holiday complexes in its core — instead a dense grid of flat-roofed, cubist, North-African-influenced houses (the casas de açoteia and trapeira rooftops), two grand red-brick market halls on the waterfront, and a genuine year-round Portuguese town that does not empty out in winter. The lagoon islands — Armona, Culatra, Fuseta's sandbars — are reachable by ferry in 15-30 minutes. It suits buyers who want a real town to renovate into, daily life in Portuguese, and proximity to Faro airport (about 15 minutes by car) rather than a polished expat enclave.