The Edition 2024: Estoril & Cascais, Portugal
Reviewed by Tyler Clark, CEO of Clark Baldwin 
We are pleased to introduce The Edition 2024, guiding you to the top destinations for luxury real estate. Estoril and Cascais, this season’s hotspots, are renowned as Portugal’s most coveted destinations for foreign second-home buyers.
Housing Market Overview
Having carved a reputation as a hideaway for spies and kings during World War II, thanks to its outlying location on the Iberian peninsula and Portugal’s neutrality, Estoril is forever imbued with the curious glamour that comes from having been a hotbed of all sorts of espionage more than 80 years ago.
Buyers don’t go there for that reason, of course – although there is a healthy tourist trail that leads from Lisbon’s old spy haunts to Estoril’s Hotel Palacio and casino, where Ian Fleming, and his infamous fictitious hero, James Bond, would prop up the bar.
Now, Estoril and neighbouring Cascais, which sit just a few kilometres apart, half an hour’s drive west of Lisbon on the Portuguese Riviera, are among the most expensive places to buy property in Portugal and routinely voted as offering the highest quality of living.
Cascais’ beautiful and vibrant architecture
The median listing price of properties for sale in Estoril is €7,300/m2 ($7,900/m2) and prices have hit a plateau since the start of 2024 after fairly consistent growth, with some dips, since March 2023.
Cascais is marginally cheaper, at around €6,500/m2 ($7,100/m2), and has seen an int ermittent run in property price growth in that same period. House prices have risen by up to 10% in the last year and can often sell for more than €10,000/m2 ($11,000/ m2) or even €20,000/m2 ($21,500/m2) if they are large villas with expansive sea views.
Though Estoril and Cascais are often mentioned in the same breath, and both attract foreign buyers seeking villas with gardens, each within reach of Lisbon, they are quite different in character, and their property markets are very different from the capital’s.
Tyler ClarkCEO of Clark Baldwin“The Historic District of Cascais is growing rapidly, with buyers investing in architecturally significant properties for renovation.”
In Quinta da Marinha, within the Sintra and Cascais natural park, close to international schools, cycle paths and beaches, is the Sheraton Cascais resort with apartments for sale. This is the nearest to luxury Algarve-style resort living you can get to Lisbon. At the highest end of its market, large contemporary houses of 1,000m2 on large plots in the Gandarinha area of Cascais can cost up to €16m ($17.3m).
Cascais: Beach summer destination in Portugal, near Lisbon
Estoril, in contrast, began to grow in the 1940s, when many European families retreated there to escape the war. It’s generally considered quieter than Cascais, with fewer amenities close by. Beachfront properties are rare because the coast is so protected.
Lisbon’s success has naturally seen a spill-over in demand for properties on this coast – from domestic families seeking better prices in the suburbs to start-up companies gravitating to coastal Oeiras or the surfing town of Carcavelos, halfway between Lisbon and Estoril, where a new Hilton Cascais residences scheme on the beachfront is due for completion in 2026.
Average Prices in Prime Locations
Estoril & Cascais: Average Listing Price in Prime Locations
Cascais $1,604,000 Estoril $1,871,000
Prices in the region continue to rise as demand is high and stock is low. An imbalance is unlikely to right itself any time soon as Lisbon and its Riviera continue to hold a sanctuary-like allure to buyers from all over the world.
