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Foreigners Spend Twice the Money on a Lisbon Home Than Locals

  • Portuguese capital attracts scores of international buyers
  • Competition threatens to push locals out of the city center

To try to regulate demand, Portugal’s government began restricting its so-called golden visa program to property purchases outside Lisbon and the northern city of Oporto. 

Photographer: Jose Sarmento Matos/Bloomberg
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It seems nothing can stop overseas investors from snapping up prime Portuguese property. In fact, they’re willing to pay more than double for a Lisbon home than domestic buyers.

Foreigners paid a median price of 4,283 euros ($4,599) per square meter of Lisbon property in the three months through December, compared with 1,858 euros for locals, according to the country’s National Statistics Institute.