Property sales to stagnate in 2024?

The Portuguese believe that house sales will slump (45.8%) or even fall (40.7%) in 2024 compared to 2023.

This is according to a survey from Imovendo that quizzed 14,749 people in the real estate sector, including investors and buyers, home owners, estate agents and consultants between December 26 to 29.
The majority of those canvassed (67.8%) thought that interest rates would go down, but think that they are still too high while 15.3% do not believe interest rates will go down anytime soon.
Half of those questioned blamed the economic crisis as a main driver impacting the real estate market, while 27.6% blamed interest rates, 6.9% on the Ukraine war, and 3.4% on the fall of the government.
Changes within the family continue to be the main cause of house sales (33.1%), but the Portuguese also point to other factors such as employment (9.1%), increases in interest rates (18.2%) or investment as reasons to sell their property.
When it came to buying the property, 50% said that price was the main factor in the decision to buy, 31.3% said location was the main factor, and 12.5% said the condition of the property was a key factor.
The Imovendo survey concluded that 37.9% of those surveyed thought mostly Portuguese had bought properties in 2023 whereas 25.9% said foreigners, 25.9% thought investors, and only 5.2% thought that young people had purchased properties.
As for the government’s More Housing programme, only 10.3% thought that the programme was positive for the real estate market.