Buying property in Madeira as a foreigner (2026): areas, prices and total costs

Where to buy in Madeira

The table runs along the sunnier south coast, from Caniço east of Funchal to Calheta in the south-west, then the north coast and the separate island of Porto Santo. Prices below are INE medians actually paid over the 12 months to June 2026 and idealista asking prices for August 2026. INE publishes parish figures only for Funchal; elsewhere its figure covers the whole municipality, including older rural houses.

Area	Character and property types	INE median paid	idealista asking	Tends to suit
Funchal Lido and hotel zone (São Martinho)	Seafront hotels, promenade, apartment blocks along Estrada Monumental; flats with sea views	€4,230/m²	€4,374/m²	Lock-up-and-leave, retirees
Funchal centre and old town (Sé, Santa Maria Maior)	Cathedral, marina, old town; older flats and townhouses	Sé €3,863/m²	Sé €4,381/m²	Car-free city life
São Pedro and Monte (upper Funchal)	Hillside residential streets; Monte is higher, cooler and greener, with older quintas	€3,324/m²; Monte €1,839/m²	€3,614/m²; Monte €3,139/m²	Space and views close to the city
Caniço and Garajau (Santa Cruz)	Residential villas and apartments east of Funchal, towards the airport	Santa Cruz €2,853/m²	Caniço €3,271/m²	Families, retirees
Câmara de Lobos and Estreito	Fishing town and hillside villages west of Funchal	€2,464/m²	€3,300/m²; Estreito €3,181/m²	Lower prices near Funchal
Calheta and Arco da Calheta	Sunny south-west coast, marina; newer villas with pools on terraced slopes	€1,865/m²	€4,495/m²; Arco da Calheta €4,623/m²	Villa buyers, second homes
Ponta do Sol and Madalena do Mar	Small coastal towns; the Digital Nomad Village is in Ponta do Sol	€1,767/m²	Ponta do Sol parish €4,399/m²	Remote workers, quiet coastal life
North coast (Santana, São Vicente, Porto Moniz)	Greener and wetter, rural houses, much land in the Natural Park	€1,431–1,825/m²	Santana €2,095/m²; São Vicente €2,980/m²	Nature, lower entry price; car essential
Porto Santo	Separate, drier island with a long sandy beach; holiday apartments	€2,410/m²	€3,835/m²	Beach second homes

The big gaps in the west (Calheta: €1,865 paid against €4,495 asked) do not mean sellers there ask two and a half times the going rate. They reflect a mix of old farmhouses in the sales data and new villas in the listings. Ask for sold prices of comparable homes.

What does a typical home cost?

Measure	Price per m²	100 m² home at that rate
INE median paid, Madeira region, 12 months to June 2026	€2,690	€269,000
INE median paid, apartments, Madeira region	€3,532	€353,200
INE median paid, Funchal	€3,538	€353,800
idealista asking, Madeira island, August 2026	€3,795	€379,500
idealista asking, Funchal, August 2026	€4,042	€404,200
idealista asking, Calheta, August 2026	€4,495	€449,500

Timing. idealista’s island-wide asking price has been flat since March 2026 (€3,802/m² then, €3,795/m² in August), and the number of home sales in Madeira fell 25.6% in the first quarter of 2026 and 15.2% in the second, compared with a year earlier (DREM, Madeira’s statistics office). Buyers with a tax address abroad paid a median €3,611/m² in the second quarter, 29.7% more than buyers based in Portugal.

Letting. idealista asking rents on Madeira island averaged €16.2/m² a month in August 2026 (Funchal €17.3/m²), up 10.4% in a year.

The total cost of buying in Madeira

Madeira has its own IMT (property transfer tax) tables. Since Lei 21/90, the bracket limits in Madeira and the Azores are 25% higher than on the mainland, while the rates are the same. The tax authority publishes the 2026 regional tables in Ofício Circulado 40129/2026. For a second home, for example, the 8% band runs from €413,174 to €792,414 in Madeira, against €330,539 to €633,931 on the mainland.

A common assumption is that Madeira’s lower taxes also cut the bill for foreign buyers. They don’t. Since 25 May 2026, a buyer who is not tax resident in Portugal pays a flat 7.5% IMT on the whole price of a home (Decree-Law 97/2026, article 17(10) of the IMT Code), and the law makes no exception for Madeira. So the regional tables help only resident buyers, and the gap between non-residents and residents is wider in Madeira than on the mainland. Everyone pays 0.8% stamp duty on the price, plus 0.6% on a mortgage.

Worked example: cash purchase, no mortgage.

	€400,000 Funchal flat	€750,000 Calheta villa
Non-resident: IMT 7.5%	€30,000	€56,250
Stamp duty 0.8%	€3,200	€6,000
Casa Pronta deed and registration	€375	€375
Non-resident total	€33,575 (8.4%)	€62,625 (8.4%)
Resident, second home (Madeira table): IMT	7% − €11,743.15 = €16,257	8% − €15,874.89 = €44,125
Resident second home total	€19,832	€50,500
Resident, main home (Madeira table): IMT	7% − €13,072.48 = €14,928	8% − €17,204.22 = €42,796
Resident main home total	€18,503	€49,171
For comparison: resident second home on the mainland table	€19,300	€45,000
Extra IMT for a non-resident vs a resident second-home buyer	€13,743	€12,125

On the mainland, the same non-resident would pay €10,700 more than a resident on the €400,000 flat; in Madeira it is €13,743. Residents pay a flat 6% from €826,228 (main home) or €792,414 (other homes) up to €1,438,566, and 7.5% above that, so the gap only disappears above €1,438,566 (on the mainland, above €1,150,853).

The €375 is the national Casa Pronta fee without a mortgage (€700 with one). A Casa Pronta desk operates at the Funchal land registry, which is run by the regional administration; confirm the fee locally. Add your lawyer’s fee, a survey and any bank fees.

Use the Madeira setting. Our IMT calculator has a Madeira option that applies the regional tables above. The general buying cost calculator uses mainland tables: for a non-resident buyer the answer is the same in Madeira, because the 7.5% rate is flat, but for a resident buyer it overstates the IMT on most Madeira homes up to €1,438,566.

Three rules change the answer for a non-resident:

• Becoming resident. A buyer who becomes Portuguese tax resident within two years, or lets the home at a moderate rent (up to €2,300 a month) for at least 36 months, can reclaim the difference by applying within six months of qualifying.
• Former residents. The 7.5% rate does not apply to buyers who were Portuguese tax resident at any time before.
• Moving to Madeira. If you become resident in Madeira itself (more than 183 days a year, with your home and tax address there), your income tax is also lower: from 2026, Madeira applies 70% of the mainland IRS rates (8.75% to 33.6%) to its residents.

For the national buying process, see buying property in Portugal.

Schools, flights and healthcare

International schools (checked on each school’s website, 28 September 2026):

School	Location	Curriculum	Ages
International Sharing School – Madeira	Rua de Santa Luzia, Funchal	IB World School: Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma programmes, taught in English	3–18
International School of Madeira	Funchal	Cambridge Primary, taught in English; founded 1997	3–10

We found no other international school in Madeira teaching secondary pupils in English, so families with teenagers have one choice. See international schools and where to buy.

Flights. Madeira’s airport is in Santa Cruz municipality, east of Funchal and close to Caniço. It handled more than 5 million passengers for the first time in 2025, with 26 airlines flying to 65 destinations, according to the airport operator ANA. It operates under mandatory wind limits, and strong winds cause diversions and cancellations: on one day in July 2025 more than 30 flights were cancelled and 15 diverted, according to the regional newspaper DNoticias. If you plan to fly often, allow for disruption.

Healthcare. The main public hospital is Hospital Dr. Nélio Mendonça in Funchal, run by the regional health service (SESARAM). A new central hospital with about 600 beds is being built in Funchal, but the tender for its final phase drew no bids in May 2026; the regional government is relaunching it and, according to Observador, now expects completion at the end of 2030. The main private hospital, formerly Hospital Particular da Madeira, became Hospital CUF Madeira in June 2026.

Local rules buyers should check

• Short lets (alojamento local, AL). Under Funchal’s AL regulation (Regulamento 787/2026, in force since 30 June 2026), no new AL registrations are allowed in Sé parish, the city centre. In the other nine Funchal parishes, new registrations are allowed only for a whole house, or rooms in a house, with its own entrance, apart from limited exceptions for rehabilitated old or long-vacant buildings, and not if the home had a residential lease in the previous two years. Do not buy a Funchal flat on the assumption that you can register it for holiday lets. We have not checked the rules in other municipalities.
• Protected land. The Madeira Natural Park covers about two-thirds of the island, including the Laurisilva forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. Building on rural plots inside it is tightly restricted.
• Plans and plots. Funchal’s municipal plan (PDM) is being revised and parts of it were suspended from July 2026 for up to two years. On steep, terraced plots elsewhere, check with the council what can be built before you buy land.
• Licensing and the 1 October 2026 deed rule. From 1 October 2026 (Decree-Law 108/2026), the deed must state whether the habitation licence was shown, declared to exist, or does not exist; if that statement is missing, either party can seek to annul the sale. Check that pools and extensions appear on the approved plans.

Finding an agent in Madeira

In Portugal the listing agent is paid by the seller and acts for the seller. If you want someone on your side, use a buyer’s agent and agree in writing who pays them: an agency cannot be paid by both buyer and seller in the same deal (Lei 15/2013). Our list of English-speaking estate agents in Madeira gives offices, segments and AMI licence numbers, including two buyer’s agents, without ranking them. See also buyer’s agents in Portugal, selling in Madeira for market conditions from the seller’s side, and the Madeira hub.

Key points

• Homes in Madeira sold for a median €2,690/m² in the 12 months to June 2026 (Funchal €3,538/m²); idealista asking prices were €3,795/m² island-wide in August 2026.
• Madeira’s IMT brackets are 25% higher than the mainland’s, which helps resident buyers only.
• Non-residents pay a flat 7.5% IMT in Madeira too: €30,000 on a €400,000 flat, €13,743 more than a resident buying a second home.
• Use the Madeira setting in the IMT calculator; the general buying cost calculator uses mainland tables, which are too high for resident buyers.
• Since 30 June 2026 Funchal allows no new short-let registrations in Sé and, elsewhere in the city, mainly only for houses with their own entrance.
• The Sharing School is the only international school we found with a secondary section; flights can be disrupted by wind.