House prices rise 6.6% in 12 months to June – INE

According to data released, the Housing Price Index (HPI) rose 6.6% in the second quarter in year-on-year terms, 1.4 percentage points higher than in the previous quarter on Wednesday.

According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), during this period, new homes’ prices increased faster than those of existing homes, 6.9% and 6.5%, respectively.

Compared to the previous quarter, the IPHab increased 2.2% (1.6% in the first quarter of 2021), with the price increase being more intense in new housing (3.5%) than in existing housing (1.8%).

Between April and June 2021, 52,855 dwellings were transacted, up 58.3% compared to the same period of the previous year.

“This expressive increase is partly due to a base effect given that the year-on-year comparison focuses on April to June 2020, a period characterised by significant restrictions on economic activity as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic containment measures that implied the lowest number (and value) of transactions since the third quarter of 2016,” it signals.

By months, according to INE, the increase in the number of transactions settled at 75.1% in April, reducing to just over 50% in the following two months.

In value terms, in the quarter under review, the homes transacted accounted for approximately 8.6 billion euros, which represents an increase of 66.5% year-on-year.

According to INE, April was the month with the most significant growth, with a year-on-year rate of 72.4%, followed by June and May with variations of 64.3% and 63.9%, respectively.

By region, 17,454 houses were transacted in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, with the region concentrating 33% of all transactions, 2.1 percentage points less than the previous year.

In the North, 14,830 transactions were recorded, corresponding to 28.1% of the total.

“After four consecutive quarters of increases, the North registered a reduction of 0.6 percentage points in the respective regional quota, it indicates.

The Centre, with 10,763 transactions, was the region with the most significant increase in relative weight, 1.3 percentage points more, making up 20.4% of the total.

Algarve and Alentejo presented very close records in the number of transactions, 4,020 and 3,834, respectively, which corresponded to a relative weight of 7.6% and 7.3%, in the same order.

The number of lodging transactions in the Autonomous Region of Madeira reached 1,131 units, 2.1% of the total (an increase of 0.5 percentage points in homologous terms).

In the Autonomous Region of the Azores, there were 823 transactions and a reduction of 0.1 percentage points in the relative weight, fixed at 1.6%.