Portugal’s property market down 8% in 2020

Sales in Portugal’s housing market were down 8% in 2020 according to Confidencial Imobiliário.

The year closed with a total of 161,500 sales on mainland Portugal says CI based on information reported to the SIR Residential Information System which shows that transaction activity was down 8%, below the 175,300 homes transacted in 2019.
The fall in activity particularly reflects the initial impact of the pandemic, with the second quarter of the year registering less activity, with around 32,500 homes bought and sold in a fall of 21% compared to the 41,600 units sold in the 1st quarter.
The market picked up in the third quarter, registering close to 44,000 units transacted, an rhythm that held in the 4th quarter with estimated sales of 43,350.
Both Lisbon and Porto saw sharper falls in sales than sales nationally as a whole. Estimates point to 11,600 homes sold in Lisbon reflecting an 18% fall on the 14,150 homes sold in 2019. In Porto, 5,200 homes were sold, 27% down on the 7,150 homes transacted in 2019.
“The most visible impact of the pandemic in the residential market is seen in the number of transactions, but even in this case, there was an immediate recovery when the lockdown ended in the second quarter.
“Looking at it as a whole, Ci forecasts based on the SIR is a total fall of around 8% on 2019, a notable number for the context in which the market is having to operate. Of course this collective result is not reflected the same way in different residential property markets.
“For example, the Lisbon and Porto markets, where the driver for demand has been international and tourism, were the markets that most suffered,” says Ricardo Guimarães, director of Confidencial Imobiliário.
House prices in Portugal’s second city, however, saw 1.2% growth in the 4th quarter of 2020, an improvement on the third quarter, when the quarterly price variation had been at -0.4%.