Portugal’s property market booms with 500 house sales per day

Property sales in Portugal hit a 10-year high of 500 properties a day in 2018 according to the Portuguese estate agents association APEMIP.

In all, 180,000 properties (houses and apartments) were sold, an increase of 25,000 on 2017 with the trend set to remain for 2019.

Not since 10 years ago have so many houses and apartments been sold in Portugal, many of which have been snapped up by overseas investors.

Between January and December around 180,000 houses were sold representing 500 houses a day.

The Association adds that these numbers represent an increase of 125% since 2014. The official statistics will only be released by the National Statistics Institute in March, but from the last quarter of 2018 and ballpark forecasts from estate agents, sales should be similar in Q4 2018 to the rest of the year.

Foreigners, particularly Brazilian and French continue to represent the lion’s share of buyers, a trend which has continued since 2012, the year when the Golden Visa scheme was created.

According to APEMIP overseas investors through the Golden Visa and NHR schemes represent 20% of all home sales in 2018, i.e., 35,000 houses.

Luis Lima, president of APEMIP says, “The real estate market continues to have all the conditions to grow despite forecasts in a slight downturn in growth which is normal.”