Housing prices jump 8%, sales are at its record

  • ECO News
  • 23 June 2017

Housing prices grew 7.9% in the first quarter of 2017, in comparison to the homologous period of 2016. As for the amount of houses being sold, there was an almost 20% increase, INE reveals.

The Portuguese real estate market is soaring. In the first quarter of 2017, housing prices increased at the fastest rate of at least eight years. According to the Housing Price Index (HIP), the indicator disclosed by INE, housing prices have jumped 8%, on average, in that period. As for the number of houses which were sold, there was a 20% increase — a record.

“In the first quarter of 2017, the HPI increased 7.9 % when compared with the same period of the last year, 0.3 p.p. more than in the previous quarter“, states INE (Statistics Portugal).

The strong growth in housing prices was followed by a new record in the number of sold houses. In the first three months of the year, a total of 35,178 houses were sold in Portugal. This is the highest number on INE’s history, which dates back to the beginning of 2009. This number also corresponds to an increase close to 20% in comparison to the 29,464 houses sold in the same period of 2016.

The accentuated valuation in housing prices and the increase in the number of sold houses takes place in a context of a real estate market recovery. This recovery is based on the country’s economic outlook improvement, the return of housing credit, the relief in spreads given by banks to families that want to borrow money to buy house, and the demand coming from foreign investors.