Renting a house: these are the 10 cheapest towns in Portugal

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Renting a house in Portugal continues to be an option for many households and families, given the flexibility it presents, along with the lower initial investment required compared to purchasing a home. However, rental prices continue to become much more expensive in large urban centers, putting pressure on salaries. The search for more affordable rent in Portugal often leads people to move to the outskirts of Lisbon and Porto, as well as further inland, where the 10 cheapest towns to rent a house in Portugal are located.

The average rent for new rental contracts in Portugal reached 7.21 euros/m2 in 2023 (the last 12 months ending in the second half of last year), the highest figure since 2020, as revealed by the Portuguese National Statistics Institute (INE) in a bulletin published at the end of March 2024. It was 38 municipalities - mainly those located in Greater Lisbon and the metropolis of Porto - that pressurised the increase in the cost of renting property during this period.

This is because most of the 215 municipalities with available data (out of 308) have rental prices below the national median. In fact, there are 119 municipalities where houses were rented for less than 5 euros/m2. As you might expect, where it's cheapest to rent a house in Portugal is further inland. Let's find out the cheapest towns to rent a house in Portugal in 2024.

The 10 cheapest towns to rent property in Portugal 2024

You have to travel inland to discover the 10 cheapest places to rent a house in Portugal in 2023/2024. This is because they are mainly located in the districts bordering Spain, such as Bragança, Guarda, Castelo Branco, Portalegre and Évora. The exceptions are the district of Porto, represented by the municipality of Baião, and the district of Viseu, by the municipality of Satão.

Vila Nova de Foz Côa (Guarda district) was the most affordable municipality in which to rent a house in Portugal last year, costing just 2.08 euros/m2. Vila Flor (Bragança) and Trancoso (Guarda) followed closely behind. In these three municipalities, renting a 100 square metre house cost less than 250 euros per month on average.

At the bottom of the list are Mogadouro, Sátão and Mirandela. All these municipalities have house rent of less than 3 euros/m2, which means that it is possible to rent a 100 square metre house for less than 300 euros per month (on average).

The 10 towns with the highest rental costs in Portugal

Unsurprisingly, it is in large urban centers where houses for rent are most expensive, as is the case in Lisbon, Porto, Setúbal and Madeira. In first place is Lisbon, which wins the medal for the municipality with the most expensive rental market of all. Here renting a home cost 15.22 euros/m2 in 2023, which means that a 100 m2 home had a median cost of 1,522 euros per month.

Cascais and Oeiras are in second and third place, respectively, with house rents of 14.22 euros/m2 and 13 euros/m2. Next is the municipality of Porto, with the fourth most expensive rent in the country (11.72 euros/m2).

In this ranking are the 8 municipalities in the country with average rent equal to or greater than 10 euros/m2. In other words, renting a 100 m2 home is equivalent to paying more than 1,000 euros per month. The only exceptions to the rule are Funchal and Loures, which recorded slightly lower median rental costs of 9.78 euros/m2 and 9.68 euros/m2, respectively.