House prices will continue to rise

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It is not the news that most people want to hear, but it is the reality: house prices will continue to rise, at least in the next three years. The center of Lisbon will already be close to reaching the limit of increases, because it was where the values have grown more so far, but in Porto there is still room to increase, because "interest began later." And the same happens in the outskirts of these cities and even in secondary cities or in the interior of the country, because that is where it starts to be more demand that can then lead to lack of supply. The good side is that prices will not rise so much as so far and will gradually begin to stabilize.

This is the consensus view of most real estate agents contacted by Expresso. Because, they say, "prices can’t continue to grow as they have until now. There has to be a limit. "And it is also the opinion of economists and even financial entities. Earlier this week, Standard & Poor's (S&P) released a report estimating prices to rise 9.5% this year.

The justifications for these estimates are several and extend to the low interest rates and the good economic environment that the country is going through at the moment, with increased employment and, consequently, family income, S&P says. But there are two reasons that stand out: the lack of supply and the increase in demand.

THE REASONS

Lack of supply: There are more new homes to be licensed and built, but there are still a few new homes that will take a long time to reach the market.

Further demand: External demand will continue, but now there is increasing demand for domestic demand that has less money to spend.

Growing economy: The economy is expected to continue to grow this year, albeit less than in the previous year

More employment: The unemployment rate is falling which means that there are more people employed and hence more purchasing power.

Low interest rates: Interest rates should remain low allowing the cost of borrowing to be lower.