According to the figures released by Eurostat, dwellings in Portugal increased in value by an average of 7.4% during the year 2016, making it the country in the Euro Zone with the highest increase, above the Euro Zone average of 4.1% and Spain (4.3%).

Portugal has registered an increase for 8 consecutive quarters and a total increase of 12.4% during that period (2 years). Hungary and Island saw their dwellings increase by over 18% during these 2 years.

This seems to be a general tendency in Europe as none of the countries within the Euro Zone suffered a reduction of the value of their dwellings. During the last quarter of 2016, Island (13.6%), Norway (11.6%) and Check Republic (11%) were the countries with the highest increase. Portugal registered a rise of 7.6%, considerably higher than the European average of 4.1%.

This clearly demonstrates that 4 years after the end of the recession, people are again confident that property investment is the way to go, largely influenced by low interest rates.