House prices jump almost 10% in one year

  • Lusa
  • 23 March 2022

Last year, 165,682 homes were bought and sold, 20.5% more than in 2020, with transactions totalling €28.1 billion, 31.1% more than the previous year.

The Housing Price Index (HPI) rose 9.4% in 2021, 0.6 percentage points (pp) higher than in 2020, with the rise in existing homes (9.6%) greater than that of new homes (8.7%), according to the INE.

Last year, 165,682 homes were bought and sold, 20.5% more than in 2020, with transactions totalling €28.1 billion, 31.1% more than the previous year, according to data from Statistics Portugal (INE) released on Wednesday.

Existing homes increased 22.1% and 34.2%, respectively, in the number and value of transactions, while in new homes there was an increase of 12.9% in the number of transactions and 21.7% in value.

In 2021, the transactions of dwellings whose buyer belonged to the institutional sector of the families, represented 85.6% and 85.7%, respectively, in number and value of the total transactions registered.

INE’s regional analysis shows that, in 2021, the North registered 47,699 transactions and the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon 51,014 units, concentrating 59.6% of the total number of transactions, the lowest joint relative weight since 2009 and the only regions to show year-on-year reductions in their respective relative regional shares (of 0.4 pp and 0.8 pp, in that order).

Last year, the value of houses transacted in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area totalled €12 billion, 42.6% of the total value, registering for the third consecutive year a year-on-year reduction in the relative weight of this region (-0.4 pp).

INE also recorded a decrease in the relative regional shares in the North (-0.7 pp) and Centre (-0.3 pp) regions, the former representing 24% of the total value transacted and 13% in the latter, while the Algarve recorded the largest increase in its relative share, at 12.8%.

The Alentejo maintained its relative share in the value of transactions at 4.3%, while the Autonomous Region of Madeira, with an increase of 0.3 pp in its relative weight, represented 2.2% of the total value.

INE data for the fourth quarter of 2021 show that the year-on-year rate of change in the HPI was 11.6%, 0.1 pp above the previous quarter, with the price increase for existing dwellings in this period exceeding that of new dwellings, at 11.9% and 10.6%, respectively.

In these last three months of 2021, 45,885 transactions were carried out, translating a year-on-year growth of 17.2% and an increase of 5.6% compared to the previous quarter, with transactions totalling €8.2 billion, 34.9% more than in the same period of 2020.