ERA sees 8% sales tumble

The Portuguese estate agent ERA has seen a fall of 8% in its business turnover in 2023 that stood at €1.62Bn.

The total of the year’s transactions represents a fall on the €1.77Bn posted in 2022 according to the estate agency.
There was an 8% reduction in the number of transactions from 11,863 in 2022 to 10,908 in 2023. Turnover was €84 million in 2023, which means a fall of 9% like-for-like. Despite this fall, the 2nd half of the year was marked by an improvement in both indicators, particularly in the value of transactions that saw a 2.8% increase on the first half of the year.
“Despite 2022 having been the best year ever for ERA, the 4th quarter of that year already reflected the impact of (increased) interest rates and inflation. This situation caused a natural slowdown in the sector as the latest data from the INE (statistics institute) show with a 20% reduction in the total number of houses sold in 2023.(On 2022)
“However, the 2nd half of the year has already showed signs of a return in confidence and the overall indicators show obvious improvements that were decisive so that the falloff in ERA transactions was a lot less than the sector overall”, said Rui Torgal, CEO of ERA Portugal.
The TOP3 districts in Portugal for ERA in terms of transactions were Porto (20%), Lisbon (18%), and Setúbal (10%). The average price of properties sold by ERA continued to increase despite the slowdown. In 2023 growth was +1% while the average time from market to sale was 226 days last year.