Increase in housing prices in Portugal above the EU average
19 July 2017
In the first three months of the year, house prices rose by 7.9% compared to the same period in 2016, almost double the average in the European Union: 4.5%.
Buying a house is getting more expensive. According to the most recent Eurostat figures – which analysed the first three months of 2017 – house prices increased by 4.5% y-o-y on average in the European Union compared to the same period in 2016. As for the Euro Area, the rise was slightly lower (4.0%). With a growth of 7.9%, the price of houses in Portugal is almost twice as high as the European average, both with respect to the Euro Area and the European Union, influenced by the scarcity of supply.
Despite the high growth, according to Eurostat, Portugal is not among the countries with the highest year-on-year growth. The highest increases were recorded in the Czech Republic (12.8%), Lithuania (10.2%) and Latvia (10.1%). Croatia (-0.4%) and Italy (-0.1%) are the only European countries where prices fell compared to the first quarter of 2016.
Comparing the first quarter of 2017 with the previous one, house price growth was 0.4% in the Euro Area and 0.7% in the European Union, with the highest increases recorded in the Czech Republic (2.9%), Latvia (2.8%) and Sweden (2.5%).
In Portugal, house prices increased by 2.1% in the quarterly comparison. The most significant decreases were registered in Malta (-5.4%), Slovakia (-2.4%) and Cyprus (-1.4%).
Original Story: O Jornal Econômico – José Macário
Translation: Richard Turner