Figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE) show that the median bank valuation of apartments in the Algarve reached €3,010 per square metre in July. This was the second-highest value in Portugal, behind Greater Lisbon, where the figure stood at €3,469 per square metre.

Across Portugal, bank valuations reached a new high of €2,240 per square metre in July, up 0.5% from June and 15.2% from the same month last year.

Apartments continued to receive higher valuations than houses. The national median for apartments reached €2,627 per square metre, 16.5% higher than a year earlier.

Looking at different apartment sizes across Portugal, T1 properties received the highest valuations at €3,343 per square metre, followed by T2 apartments at €2,711 and T3 apartments at €2,255.

The value of houses also continued to increase, reaching a national median of €1,606 per square metre. This was 13.6% higher than in July last year.

The INE data also shows that the Algarve remains one of the most expensive regions in the country. Overall residential bank valuations in the region were 32.6% above the national median. Only Greater Lisbon recorded a larger difference, at 51.7% above the national figure.

The figures are based on property valuations carried out by banks as part of mortgage applications. More than 34,000 valuations were included in the July results.