São Jorge combines depopulation with rising prices as its fajãs become a tourist prize

São Jorge, the long, steep-sided island famous for its cheese, has a property market running at two speeds. While the island's interior has been losing population for decades, its coastal fajãs — flat platforms formed by old lava flows or landslides — have become one of the archipelago's most sought-after property assets, according to local tourism and real-estate sources.

An island that has been losing people for decades

São Jorge has recorded sustained population decline, with pronounced ageing in the inland parishes, according to data from Portugal's Instituto Nacional de Estatística. Many homes in these areas remain empty, inherited by families who no longer live on the island.

From subsistence living to tourist draw

Historically home to fishermen and smallholders, fajãs dotted along the coast near Velas and Calheta are now sought after by buyers, many of them foreign, who restore the old houses for rural tourism or as second homes, drawn by the scenery and the isolation. Prices for these properties have risen sharply in barely five years, according to estate agents consulted.

A dual market: cheap inland, expensive on the coast

That duality marks the island's entire market: while a traditional home inland can sell for modest sums, a restored fajã with sea views fetches figures several times higher, according to industry sources.

Cheese and dairy farming as a brake on construction

São Jorge's economy still revolves largely around cheese production and dairy farming, which keeps large stretches of farmland protected and limits the land available for new housing — a balance that the cheese cooperatives defend as essential to the island.

Initiatives to keep people on the island

The Velas Câmara Municipal and the Regional Government run incentive programmes to attract new residents and renovate empty housing in the inland parishes, aiming to slow population loss while managing tourism growth on the fajãs.