Banking sector’s property portfolio down to 12 houses in Lisbon, all premium
The real estate market in the country's capital keeps booming, with the number of house sales and house prices continuously rising. Even the banking system has nearly run out of offers in Lisbon.
Purchasing a house in the city of Lisbon is increasingly problematic, with prices rising considerably making it too expensive to buy a house in the capital of Portugal. Offers are narrowing down, and real estate companies are working hard to convince property owners to sell their assets. The scarcity of houses in Lisbon has also hit the banking system, as its property portfolio also dropped significantly. Portuguese banks have merely a dozen houses in their portfolio of properties for sale in the region, and these are particularly expensive and not fit for everyone.
In areas surrounding the city, the offer has shortened significantly as well. Looking through the online platforms that seven of the biggest Portuguese banks have built to sell these properties, we confirm this: between CGD, BCP, Novo Banco, Santander Totta, BPI, Montepio Gerl and Crédito Agrícola, only 12 properties are available for sale in Lisbon.
Some of these banks do not even own a single property in the city — as is the case of Novo Banco, Santander, BPI and Montepio. Most of the properties (10/12) are owned by Millenium BCP, the banking institution which is led by Miguel Maya, followed by public bank CGD and Crédito Agrícola, with one property each.
Bank’s property portfolio in Lisbon
What do they all have in common? These properties are all premium, with the lowest price standing at €710.000, for a two bedroom apartment in Lumiar, owned by BCP, located in a private condominium which has eight other apartments for sale at the moment (the most expensive one is a four bedroom apartment, which is valued at €955.000). This is still not so impressive when compared with BCP’s property in Estrela, for sale for €4.17m.
Also in that area (Estrela), CGD owns a T3 apartment valued at €1.3m. As for Crédit Agrícola, its property is a penthouse, valued at €2.2m, and it is located in Avenidas Novas.
The scarcity does not surprise banks. “These are not big news”, a source from BCP said, adding that “the city of Lisbon is not a place where we [BCP] usually own many properties”.
CGD’s view goes hand in hand with that of BCP. The public bank, which is the top housing credit institution in the country, noted that “demand for houses in Lisbon has for long been surpassing supply, and for that reason, we haven’t had nearly any houses available in the city for many years already”.
