170,000 Homes May Sell in Record-Breaking Year

17 July 2018

Data from the Ministry of Justice show that in the year to May, 122,000 deeds registering the purchase and sale of homes were issued.

The various indexes tracking Portugal’s real estate market have only been heading in one direction: up. This was already the case in 2016 and 2017, and the feat is being repeated in 2018. Evidence of this can be seen in the 122,317 deeds for the registration of the purchase and sale of properties issued in the first five months of the year. These numbers, taken from the Ministry of Justice’s Registrations and Notary Affairs database, led APEMIP, an association representing real estate professionals, to predict that more than 170,000 home will be sold by the end of the year.

The 152,000 homes that were bought and sold in 2017 made it the best year for the market since 2010. Growth rates in 2018 are not expected to be quite so high, but the market is still trending upwards.

The Property Registry notes all acts involving real estate, from shares, purchases and sales, executions, liens and donations. According to the same data from the Ministry of Justice, the months between January and March saw 658,901 registrations, including 122,317 relating only to purchases and sales of real estate – including garages, land and industrial and commercial buildings. Of this total, between 67,000 and 72,000 correspond to homes.

These figures led APEMIP to estimate that between 165,000 and 175,000 family houses will have changed hands by the end of the year, 10% to 15% more than in 2017.

Existing homes

Most of these transactions will be for existing homes, as the number of newly-built homes coming on to the market is still relatively limited. Construction has increased and may reach 17,000 homes this year (if the pace of construction in the first three months is maintained), but the players in the sector continue to warn of a lack of supply. As Dinheiro Vivo recently reported, both APEMIP and the Association of Civil Construction and Public Works Industries (AICCOPN) estimate that 70,000 homes must be built to stabilise market prices.

Luís Lima, APEMIP’s president, stated that the lack of supply is because prices are rising faster than the number of sales. One of the reasons for this is a lack of supply. “There is increasing difficulty in finding assets. The stock in Lisbon and Porto is running out,” he said, adding that a possible solution involves “marketing” other areas in the country, namely other medium-sized cities.

Real estate agents and particularly international investors are already pursuing this alternative. One of the factors aiding this move is that the requirements for golden visas are lower in Portugal’s interior than they are for the coast.

Original Story: Dinheiro Vivo – Lucília Tiago

Photo: Global Imagens

Translation: Richard Turner