Lisbon is the most expensive municipality to buy a house, but in Odivelas, the financial effort is greater
A portrait of municipalities prepared by Pordata, the statistics portal of the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation (FFMS), on the eve of the local elections on October 12, reveals that Lisbon is the county where buying a house is most expensive. However, among the five municipalities geographically closest to the capital, it is in Odivelas that purchasing a home requires the greatest financial effort for those who work there.
Median prices in Lisbon reach over €5,000 per square meter
In 2024, the median prices for the sale of new homes in Lisbon rose to €5,035 per square meter. For transactions of used homes, this value decreased to €4,207 per square meter.
Considering these values, a newly built property in the capital, with an area of 100 square meters, would have been sold, on average, for €503,500, and a used one for €420,700.
Workers' earnings and the effort to buy a home
The portrait of municipalities by Pordata also indicates that employees in Lisbon had, in 2023, an average monthly earnings of €1,985.6, a value that, when multiplied by 14 monthly payments, reaches €27,798.4 annually.
By average monthly earnings, it is understood as the gross average salary including overtime or allowances.
Thus, someone working in Lisbon and wanting to buy a new home in the same city would need to save the equivalent of 18.1 annual salaries, a value that would decrease to 15.1 years of earnings if the property purchased was used.
Odivelas: The highest disparity between housing prices and earnings
Among the five municipalities geographically closest to Lisbon, Odivelas is the one that presents the greatest disparity between the median prices of houses, new and used, and the earnings of those who work there.
Despite being the third among the municipalities considered, after Lisbon and Oeiras, to present the highest median in the sale of homes, it has the lowest average monthly earnings of workers: €1,185.9, below the €1,354.3 in Almada and €1,440.3 in Loures.
The best paid are the workers in the municipality of Oeiras (€2,104.8 monthly), followed by those in 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 is the one that employs the fewest people, with 17,959 workers.
The financial effort in Odivelas exceeds that of Lisbon
Thus, if a new 100-square-meter house in Odivelas costs €318,800, and a used one €271,300, acquiring a residential property in that municipality would require, for someone working there, an amount equivalent to 19.2 years and 16.3 years of annual salaries, respectively.
In both cases, buying a house in Odivelas would require a little more than a year of salaries than in Lisbon.
Comparison with national averages
Both Lisbon and the five closest municipalities have median sales values for homes above the national average (which was €2,147 per square meter for new constructions, and €1,689 for existing ones). Lisbon is the most expensive, followed by Oeiras (€3,995 and €3,349, respectively) and Odivelas (€3,188 and €2,713, respectively).
Amadora was the only one of the municipalities closest to the capital to record higher values in used homes than in new ones: €2,493 and €2,430 per square meter, respectively.
Housing crisis in the spotlight for local elections
The housing crisis has been the central theme of candidates for the local elections in the municipalities of Greater Lisbon, as well as in other coastal regions of the country, alongside mobility and urban hygiene.
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