More Than 16,100 Homes Enter Licensing Phase in Year to April

7 June 2021

In mainland Portugal, 7,300 new residential projects totalling 16,100 homes were submitted to the municipal licensing process.

The result covers January to April of this year, and the pipeline is larger than the one during the same period last year when there were 6,770 projects and 15,800 dwellings in the portfolio. The figure is equivalent to an increase of 8% in the number of projects and 2% in the number of homes.

The data published by Confidencial Imobiliário stems from its Real Estate Pipeline, which is based on energy pre-certificates issued by ADENE. The pre-certificates are given during the project phase and are a required part of the municipal licensing process (except for minor refurbishments or works in classified buildings). The data covers the entirety of new works in new development and rehabilitation.

Around 81% is generated by new building work, which accounts for 5,900 projects totalling 13,100 homes. The remaining 19% result from rehabilitation works, totalling 1,400 projects with a total of 3,000 dwellings.

Compared to the same period last year, both types of works grew in terms of the number of projects (+9% in new construction and +7% in refurbishment). However, while the number of new-build units in the portfolio increased 3%, the number of units in refurbishment projects fell 2%.

Data released by Confidencial Imobiliário indicate that the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon posted 24% of homes in the pipeline, for a total of 3,800 units, counting 1,500 new projects under licensing.

The Metropolitan Area of Porto had 3,200 new homes in 700 projects, 20% of the national housing portfolio, while the Algarve had 1,000 homes, equivalent to 6% of the country’s pipeline. In this region, there are 400 new projects.

Confidencial Imobiliário added that, among the three regions, only the Metropolitan Area of Porto performed better than in the previous year, with a 22% increase in the number of residential units. In the Algarve and in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, the trend was downwards, with decreases of 13% and 8% smaller, respectively.

Translation: Richard D. K. Turner