In the 1^st quarter of 2026

Median rent for new lease agreements increased by 16.0% and the number of new agreements fell by 8.6% year-on-year

Based on information published today by Statistics Portugal (INE), DREM is making available on its statistics portal the update of the results of Housing Rent Statistics at local level, for the Autonomous Region of Madeira (ARM), for the period between the first quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2026.

This release incorporates new and revised information from the Stamp Duty – Tenancy Agreement Notification (Modelo 2), made available by the Tax and Customs Authority to INE and used as the base source for calculating the new data series. The information now includes all tenancy agreements with changes made in the reference month, regardless of whether an electronic rent receipt was issued in that month, as well as new variables relating to the contract number and the identification of landlords of the "enterprise" type.

As part of this update, INE carried out an in-depth methodological review of the project, strengthening the procedures for processing the base information from Modelo 2. This review also resulted in the release of new results, namely through the introduction of breakdowns by institutional sector of the landlord and tenant and by dwelling type, as well as a change in the release frequency of the 12-month reference period indicators, from half-yearly to quarterly.

Following these methodological changes, DREM now makes available more detailed information for the Autonomous Region of Madeira, including results by dwelling type, by municipality (whenever the number of observations is equal to or greater than 33) and by institutional sector of the landlord, allowing for a more complete and detailed understanding of developments in the housing rental market in the Region.

Quarterly results

In the first quarter of 2026, the median rent of the 481 new tenancy agreements for family dwellings signed in the ARM stood at 11.97 euros/m². These figures represent a quarter-on-quarter increase of 24.6% in new agreements and of 1.2% in the median rent. Compared with the first quarter of 2025, changes of -8.6% and +16.0%, respectively, were observed.

Among the nine NUTS 2 regions, the ARM ranked as the second region with the highest median rent (11.97 euros /m²), behind only Grande Lisboa (14.38 euros /m²). It was followed by Peninsula de Setúbal (11.35 euros /m²), Algarve (10.71 euros /m²), Norte (7.96 euros /m²), Oeste e Vale do Tejo (7.36 euros /m²), Centro (6.52 euros /m²), Alentejo (6.08 euros /m²) and the Autonomous Region of the Azores (6.02 euros/m²), which recorded the lowest value. The national median stood at 9.46 euros /m².

In year-on-year terms, four of the nine NUTS 2 regions recorded increases higher than that observed for the country (+9.1%), namely Alentejo (+16.7%), the ARM (+16.0%), Oeste e Vale do Tejo (+11.2%) and Peninsula de Setúbal (+10.3%), all with increases above 10%. In contrast, Centro (+6.4%) and Algarve (+6.9%) recorded the smallest year-on-year increases.

By dwelling type, the ARM had the highest median rents for T0 or T1 dwellings (15.00 euros /m²) and T2 dwellings (12.42 euros /m²).

In the reference period, Funchal, one of the country's cities with 100 000 or more inhabitants, accounted for 317 of the 481 new tenancy agreements, representing a quarter-on-quarter increase of 37.8% and a year-on-year increase of 7.5%. The median value of these agreements was 13.65 euros/m², changing by +0.3% quarter-on-quarter and +14.3% year-on-year. In a ranking of the country's municipalities, Funchal ranked 5^th in terms of the highest rent.

Results for the last 12 months

Taking as reference the 1 771 tenancy agreements signed in the 12 months ending in March 2026, the median rent in the ARM stood at 11.82 euros/m², having increased by 4.3% compared with the 12 months ending in December 2025 and by 10.4% compared with the 12 months ending in March 2025.

For the country, this indicator stood at 9.50 euros /m², corresponding to an increase of 2.3% compared with the 12 months ending in December 2025 and of 8.8% compared with the 12 months ending in March 2025. Among the NUTS 2 regions, Grande Lisboa recorded the highest median value (14.43 euros /m²) and Alentejo the lowest (5.81 euros /m²), with the ARM ranking second.

At the municipal level, Funchal had a median rent higher than that of the Region (13.60 euros /m²). In turn, the municipality of Santa Cruz recorded a median rent of 10.66 euros /m², below the regional value (11.82 euros /m²) but above the national value (9.50 euros /m²). Nationally, Funchal ranked 6^th among the municipalities with the highest median rents, behind only Lisboa (17.22 euros /m²), Cascais (16.50 euros /m²), Oeiras (15.42 euros /m²), Sines (14.65 euros /m²) and Porto (14.29 euros /m²).

In the ARM, in the period from April 2025 to March 2026, the median rent of new tenancy agreements signed by domestic landlords (resident in the ARM) belonging to the households institutional sector was lower than that recorded by domestic landlords in the remaining institutional sectors, although the figures were close: 11.60 euros /m² and 14.57 euros /m², respectively. For the Region as a whole, this indicator stood at 11.76 euros /m², compared with 9.44 euros /m² for the country. Conversely, among tenants as a whole (resident and non-resident in the ARM), the median rent of new tenancy agreements signed by the households institutional sector was higher (11.89 euros /m²) than that observed for the remaining institutional sectors (11.43 euros /m²).

In the period from April 2025 to March 2026, the ARM recorded the highest median rents for T0 or T1 dwellings (14.45 euros /m²), a situation also observed in Funchal, albeit with a higher value (16.00 euros /m²).

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