Portugal property wealth increasingly among richest 10%

As reported by Jornal de Negócios, the share held by this group rose from 34.3% in 2010 to 39.5% about 15 years later.

Meanwhile, households below the median wealth level saw their proportion of property wealth fall from 19.6% to 14.9% over the same period.

These findings point to a widening divide in real estate ownership, with the gap becoming more pronounced after the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the central bank’s analysis of household wealth.

Despite these changes in property ownership, net wealth distribution remained persistently unequal between 2010 and 2025, as the richest 10% of households held 59% of total net wealth, while the bottom 50% accounted for just 6%.

Households in the middle, defined as those between the median and the wealthiest 10%, retained a relatively stable share of property wealth, and their proportion slipped slightly from 46.1% to 45.6%.

Household assets

Residential property remains the largest component of Portuguese household assets, representing just over half of their total value.

Banco de Portugal estimates that the value of household-owned property rose from €473 billion in 2010 to €708 billion in 2025, an increase of almost 50%, driven mainly by higher property valuations, with the figures broadly consistent with national accounts data used to measure the distribution of wealth.

However, property’s share of total household assets declined from 54% to 52% over the same period, as other forms of wealth gained importance.

The importance of property also varies significantly depending on a household’s financial position. In 2025, real estate accounted for about 74% of assets held by households below the median net wealth level.

By contrast, property accounted for less than 40% of the assets held by the wealthiest 10%.

For these households, equity holdings and other capital investments represented 28% of their total assets, reflecting a more diversified portfolio.

These figures highlight how wealth accumulates differently across income and wealth groups.

Less wealthy households tend to rely more on their homes as their main asset, while those at the top of the distribution hold a larger share of financial and business investments.