City comparison
Cost of living in Cape Town vs Lisbon
One person needs about €1,260 a month in Cape Town and €1,874 in Lisbon, rent included — Cape Town is 49% cheaper overall.
Salary you'd need to keep the same lifestyle
Enter your current net monthly pay. We scale it by the full cost basket — rent, groceries, transport, utilities, eating out and internet.
To live in Lisbon the way you live in Cape Town on €3,000, you need
€4,462/ month net
49% more than today (+€1,462)
- Cape Town today
- Basket €1,260 · left over €1,740 (58%)
- Lisbon at the matched salary
- Basket €1,874 · left over €2,588 (58%)
Local pay context: average tech net pay covers the basket 128% over in Lisbon (tight) vs 143% in Cape Town. Purchasing power index · How we calculate this
🇿🇦 Cape Town
Mountain-and-ocean setting at a discount; load-shedding is the hidden cost.
Monthly budget: €1,260
Sources: Eurostat, Harmonised price indices (2025) · 0 community reports
🇵🇹 Lisbon
Visa-friendly and well connected, but local salaries lag far behind expat-driven rents.
Monthly budget: €1,874
Sources: Statistics Portugal (INE) + Eurostat, HICP & house-rent statistics (2025) · 331 community reports
Should you move to Cape Town or Lisbon?
On salary, Lisbon pays more for tech roles (€2,400 versus €1,800 a month), so the money left over after costs is €540 in Cape Town at the top end.
Rent drives most of the gap: €750 in Cape Town against €1,300 in Lisbon. Groceries, transport and utilities move far less between the two.
For remote workers, the nomad index scores Cape Town at 74 and Lisbon at 83 — see the full nomad index and our data methodology.