Residential markets in Spain, Italy and Portugal continue to become more expensive, but without the rapid rise in house prices as seen in recent years in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark or the Netherlands. However, the moderate evolution of prices was enough for some of its main cities to register record prices, as shown by the idealista price index data for each of the three countries.

Lisbon and Madrid saw the prices of homes for sale reach historic highs in the idealista series in February 2023. In the Portuguese capital, buying a home cost, in median terms, 5,178 euros/m2 during that month. And in the Spanish capital, buying a house cost 3,995 euros/m2 in February, the highest value ever, according to the same data.

Milan (Italy) and Porto have also seen peak prices in 2023, although it was in the previous month. The highest price of houses for sale ever recorded in this Italian city was 4,971 euros/m2 in January 2023. And in Porto it was 3,276 euros/m2. Today, prices are slightly lower in both cities.

In Barcelona, the record price of houses for sale was in September 2018, at 4,279 euros/m2. Today, houses in this Spanish city are 5.1% cheaper than the maximum price.

Lisbon property prices

Idealista's data for February 2023 shows that Lisbon is the city in southern Europe where it is most expensive to buy a house. And it was also the only city out of the six analysed to surpass the threshold of 5,000 euros/m2.

Close behind is Milan, where buying a house cost €4,953/m2 in February. In third place is Barcelona (4,059 euros/m2), fourth is Madrid (3,995 euros/m2) and in the last positions are Porto (3,273 euros/m2) and Rome (2,995 euros/m2).

The prices of houses to buy rose in the six cities of southern Europe in February 2023, but at very different rates. The biggest year-on-year increases in prices were registered in Porto (6.9%), Milan (6.5%) and Madrid (6.1%). Barcelona (3.3%) and Lisbon (2.3%) follow, while in Rome prices were practically stable (0.2%).