Buying property in Algarve

The Algarve spans Portugal’s southern coast, from the Spanish border at Vila Real de Santo António west to the cliffs of Sagres, with Faro as its administrative capital and airport gateway. It is the country’s most international housing market: demand is driven far more by non-resident holiday-home and relocation buyers than by the local economy, and it concentrates heavily along the coastal strip.

The regional median masks a wide internal spread — the central-coast resort concelhos trade well above the interior and the eastern sotavento. This page shows the official median for the region as a whole alongside the Faro concelho figure, each with its own provenance; concelho-level pages are planned so the full intra-region gap can be shown with the same discipline.

Short-term letting (Alojamento Local, AL) matters more in the Algarve than anywhere else in Portugal: for many foreign buyers the rental economics are central to the purchase decision. AL is regulated at the municipal level under the national regime (Decreto-Lei 128/2014, as amended), and several Algarve concelhos operate áreas de contenção that restrict or suspend new AL registrations in parts of their territory. Registration status and local rules vary by concelho and change over time.

This is general information, not legal advice — confirm the current AL status and any contention-zone limits for a specific address with the relevant câmara municipal before assuming a property can be operated as a short-term rental.

Municipal Property Tax (IMI) is levied annually by each concelho within a band set nationally, so the exact rate depends on the municipality and the property’s taxable value (VPT) — the rate in Faro can differ from that of the neighbouring resort concelhos. Any specific rate we publish is sourced from the official register with its reference year; where the warehouse cannot yet source a rate it is shown as pending rather than estimated.