Real estate stands at record maximums. House sales surpass 19 billion euros

House purchasing in Portugal is getting more expensive by the day. In 2017, house prices increased at an yearly average of 9.2%, an increase that is 2.1 percentage points’ over the 2016 growth. Yet, the increase in real estate prices does not prevent record in sales: never before have so many houses been sold in Portugal, nor for such a high price.

According to data concerning 2017 were published this Friday by Statistics Portugal (INE), 153,292 houses were transacted last year, a number that represents a 20.6% increase in comparison to 2016. Transactions totaled 19.3 billion euros, 30.6% more than in 2016.

That total amount represents the highest amount since at least 2009, the year in which INE started making the housing price index. The amount even surpasses the 2010 numbers, which was the record year for the index: immediately before the real estate sector started contracting, house transactions totaled 15.6 billion euros.

And it also means that, on average, each house in Portugal was sold, last year, for a little over 126 thousand euros. That is also the highest average amount of sales since INE started registering the index. “In the last four years, while the total sales value more than doubled, the number of transactions increased by 82%”, INE pointed.

The growth in prices was common both to existing houses and new ones, but was steeper in the first case. The average price for existing dwellings increased by 10.4%, almost double the growth rhythm seen in new houses, of 5.6%.

The Metropolitan Areas of Lisbon and Oporto had 64.3% of the total amount of transactions, which is a new maximum of the series available. The Algarve was the only region of the country that registered a decrease in the total number of transactions, representing now 9.4% of the total. Lisbon represents almost half (48.2%) of the 19 billion euros transacted last year.