Houses traded in Portugal with "the highest level ever"

The real estate industry is in turmoil and you just have to look at the real estate cranes, scaffolding and signs on the windows of homes to realize that the market is booming at all levels. The Construction and Housing Statistics released last Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) for last year reflect precisely this - not only the number of fires licensed for new construction (28.3 thousand) increased by 30.3% (+ 19.0% in 2017) as well as the licensed works for building rehabilitation increased significantly by 11.7% in 2018 (-0.1% in the previous year).

Only new buildings that were actually completed over the past year across the country were an additional 13,500, up 19 percent from the previous year.

New, rehabilitated or used, there was no shortage of demand for this supply, more precisely 178 691 homes traded, “which is the highest record in the series available”, underlines the INE, corresponding to an increase of 16.6% over the previous year. . Among the transactions carried out, 85.2% were related to existing accommodations.


The median price of m2 also rose from the previous year - 996 € / m2, an increase of almost 7%. But three regions exceeded this amount: Algarve (€ 1,523 / m2), Lisbon Metropolitan Area (1,333 € / m2) and Madeira Autonomous Region (1,207 € / m2).


EUR 6 billion in three months

And everything indicates that sales dynamics will remain high. According to official data collected by the Office of Studies of the Association of Real Estate Professionals and Real Estate Companies of Portugal (APEMIP), in the first quarter of 2019, 43.826 family households traded, 8% more than in the same period of 2018. Underlines APEMIP believes that this result - translated into 6.1 billion euros (12.9% more than in the same period of the previous year) - was “the best first quarter since record”.


Even so, when compared to the previous quarter, the number of sales fell by 6%.

The president of APEMIP, Luís Lima justifies this reduction by the fact that there is still a mismatch between supply (at too high prices) to the demand that exists, mostly assured by the Portuguese middle class.


“Much of the construction being done is targeted at a high-end segment, but new houses need to be brought into the market for the middle and lower middle class, which is the segment that has the most difficulty finding housing tailored to its needs. Luís Lima said, adding that "only with the introduction of assets in the market, prices can be relieved and the needs of Portuguese young people and families can be met."

Source: Marisa Antunes, Vision, 17 July 2019