Is Portugal’s property market cooling?
Portugal’s property market is showing signs of cooling over investor uncertainty according to a study by consultants Imovendo.
The results of the Coronavirus pandemic coupled with a low GDP and rising national and government debt, as well as disastrous tourism figures is starting to have an impact on the national’s real estate market.
According to Imovendo’s monthly report, the results of which were published by Jornal Económico, “The period of recovery of the real estate market registered in Portugal (at the start of May) seems to be slowing down”, adding that “this area of activity has an uncertain future in the coming months.”
The report says that summer is a buoyant period after which the winter months bring a slack in demand.
According to Imovendo’s estimates, this factor may be even more significant “since part of the demand that has fuelled the market in the last few months, resulted from investment decisions prior to the confinement, and from needs generated by the confinement itself, so this driving force will lose now traction and will drag the market with it. ”
The company even mentions that, after May, the month of the beginning of the deflation, “Many professionals have reported good results”. Since June, the company reports that 300 new companies have been created, a number that Imovendo considers to be “impressive”, however it is highlighted that these new companies may “put added pressure on an industry facing an uncertain future”.
For the coming months, the consultant anticipates three major dynamics: the gradual adjustment of sales prices to the new dynamics of the market, the reinforcement of the relevance of technological tools as a work tool and the need to find new strategies to sell properties. The consultant points out that, in this last point, it will be important to “ensure that the effort to adjust prices does not fall entirely on the owner”.