Renting a one-bedroom flat in Portugal costs €200 more than the minimum wage

Published on 22/09/2026 - 12:18 GMT+2•Updated 12:25 After a downward trend in the first half of 2026, rents in Portugal began climbing again in August and anyone looking for a one-bedroom flat now has to fork out an amount more than 200 euros above the minimum wage. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT According to a recent report from the property portal idealista, covering the second quarter of 2026, renting a one-bedroom flat costs a median 1,128 euros a month, a figure 123% higher than the rent for a single room, which stands at 505 euros per month. By district, Lisbon is the most expensive. A self-contained flat including one bedroom in the capital region has a median price of 1,354 euros per month. It is followed by the island of Madeira (1,295 euros/month), Faro (1,171 euros/month), Porto (983 euros/month), Setúbal (981 euros/month) and São Miguel island in the Azores (979 euros/month). At the other end of the scale, the cheapest one-bedroom flats are found in the districts of Guarda (456 euros/month), Castelo Branco (527 euros/month) and Bragança (529 euros/month). Looking at the district capitals, tenants have to stretch their budgets even further. In the city of Lisbon, a one-bedroom flat has a median price of 1,409 euros/month, a pattern repeated in other cities: Funchal (1,340 euros/month), Porto (1,003 euros/month) and Faro (1,001 euros/month). Guarda (438 euros/month), Beja (790 euros/month), Bragança (520 euros/month) and Castelo Branco (538 euros/month) are the district capitals where renting a one-bedroom flat is most affordable. As for individual rooms, Madeira (565 euros/month) is even more expensive than the Lisbon district (551 euros/month), with Porto (457 euros/month) closing the top three. At the opposite extreme are Bragança (205 euros/month), Guarda (205 euros/month) and Castelo Branco (246 euros/month). In the ranking of room prices by city, Lisbon and Funchal are neck and neck (570 euros per month). The cheapest options are in Guarda (200 euros/month), in Beja (270 euros/month) and in Viseu (271 euros/month). Studios far more expensive than rooms The survey by idealista also shows that studio flats have a median price of 908 euros per month, in other words 80% more than a room, while still being 20% cheaper than a one-bedroom flat. Bragança is where the gap between renting a room and a studio is widest, both at district level (131%) and in the city itself (128%). This report on the long-term rental market compares the median asking prices for rooms in shared flats, studio flats and one-bedroom flats advertised on the idealista portal between April and June 2026, and only includes markets with a sufficiently representative sample.