House prices rise 15.8% in 2019, should stabilise – price monitor

House prices in mainland Portugal closed 2019 with a year-on-year increase of 15.8% in December but are expected to stabilise at more normalised rates, according to the housing price index (HPI) of Confidencial Imobiliário.

Confidencial Imobiliário, which has monitored the dynamics of housing transaction prices in Portugal since 2007, said “This increase consolidates the cycle of strong appreciation that the residential market has experienced over the last two years, registering during that period year-on-year variations predominantly above 15%”.

The director of Confidencial Imobiliário, Ricardo Guimarães, stated that Lisbon, which had been the driving force behind price increases, in 2019 had increases of around 9.0%, showing robust growth, but below the 19%, it had appreciated a year before.

For 2020, Ricardo Guimarães said that it is expected that the Portuguese market will begin to reflect the trend already felt in Lisbon and that prices will end up stabilising at more normalised rates.

“In quarterly terms, the price increase at a national level was 4.2% in the last quarter of 2019, a quarter-on-quarter variation surpassed since the HPI has followed the market, only by the 4.9% registered in the 2nd quarter of 2018”.

The source stated that the latest HPI results still show that house prices at the end of 2019 were 46% above the levels recorded at the start of the decade in 2010.

“This accumulated valuation already absorbs the losses of 14% observed between 2010 and 2013, the year in which house prices in the country reached their lowest point,” Confidencial said.