Portugal has less properties on the market

The Portuguese housing market is showing signs of slowing because of a lack of offer for sale.

At the end of April there were 135,000 properties for sale compared to 150,000 at the end of last year — a fall of 6%.
A fall in supply in the housing market could “cause an increase in prices in the short term, especially in large cities”, warns the real estate consultants Imovendo.
The biggest fall in inventory was for apartments since the inventory for houses remained relatively stable in the first four months of the year.
“We are talking about 15,000 new properties coming onto the market in the first quarter in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, and 4,000 new properties in the Porto Metropolitan Area, with both areas seeing similar falls of 15% in Lisbon and 18% in Porto compared to the last quarter of 2021”, says Nélio Leão, CEO of Imovendo in an interview with newspaper Negócios.
According to the analysis from the online estate agents, the majority of sales are in Lisbon and Porto, especially Lisbon, but there are increasingly less new or second hand apartments for sale.
In terms of property sales, Imovendo notes that the rate of sales is similar to 2021 with over 38,000 properties sold in the first quarter of 2022 and around 13,000 in April 2022 “meaning continued demand, despite price increases and the new mortgage rules”.
“There is still a lot of uncertainty as to an increase in interest rates, which if it happens would be in July or September 2022 when the executive commission of the ECB meets with the governors of the central banks, but it is estimated that this increase would be by 25 base points (a quarter of 1%) if it happens”, says Nélio Leão.
The expectations regarding the buying and selling of properties in the national market for the first half is one of stabilisation compared to the first half of 2021 states Imovendo.