The picture of municipalities created by Pordata, the statistics portal of the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation (FFMS), ahead of the local elections on October 12, reveals that the median prices for new housing sales in Lisbon reached 5,035 euros per square meter in 2024. For transactions involving used houses, this value dropped to 4,207 euros per square meter.
Considering these values, a newly constructed property in the capital, covering an area of 100 square meters, would have been sold, on average, for 503,500 euros, while a used one would cost 420,700 euros.
The Pordata municipal portrait also indicates that salaried workers in Lisbon in 2023 had an average monthly income of 1,985.6 euros, a figure which, when multiplied by 14 monthly payments, amounts to an annual salary of 27,798.4 euros.
The average monthly income is understood as the gross average salary including overtime or allowances.
Thus, someone working in Lisbon and wishing to purchase a new home in the same city would need to save the equivalent of 18.1 years of annual salaries, a period that would decrease to 15.1 years of salaries if the purchased property was used.
Among the five municipalities geographically closest to Lisbon, Odivelas shows the greatest disparity between median house prices, both new and used, and the earnings of those working there.
Despite being third among the considered municipalities, after Lisbon and Oeiras, with the highest median in home sales, it registers the lowest average monthly wage for workers: 1,185.9 euros, below the 1,354.3 euros in Almada and the 1,440.3 euros in Loures.
The highest-paid workers are those from the municipality of Oeiras (2,104.8 euros monthly), followed by Lisbon (1,985.6 euros) and Amadora (1,734.8 euros).
Lisbon and Oeiras are also the municipalities that employ the most people. Lisbon has 375,043 workers, and Oeiras has 87,525. Among the six municipalities, Odivelas employs the fewest, with 17,959 workers.
Therefore, if a new house with 100 square meters in Odivelas costs 318,800 euros, and a used one 271,300 euros, purchasing a residential property in this municipality would require someone working there to save an amount equivalent to 19.2 years and 16.3 years of annual salaries, respectively.
In both cases, buying a house in Odivelas would demand slightly more than a year’s worth of salaries compared to Lisbon.
Both Lisbon and the five neighboring municipalities show median housing sale values above the national average (which was 2,147 euros per square meter for new constructions and 1,689 euros for existing ones). Lisbon is the most expensive, followed by Oeiras (3,995 euros and 3,349 euros, respectively) and Odivelas (3,188 euros and 2,713 euros, respectively).
Amadora was the only municipality close to the capital to register higher values for used houses than new ones: 2,493 euros and 2,430 euros per square meter, respectively.
The housing crisis has become the central theme for candidates in local elections in the municipalities of Greater Lisbon, as well as in other coastal regions of the country, alongside mobility and urban hygiene.
