Household sales expected to grow 10-15% in 2018

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The housing market is unparalleled. They are still provisional, but in 2017, 270 thousand real estate (housing and commerce) will have been transacted, a figure that is expected to be close to 300 thousand by the end of 2018. Disaggregating the family dwellings, the estimates of the Association of Professionals and Real Estate Agencies of Portugal (APEMIP) indicate a number of transactions between 165 and 175 thousand in the total of the year.

Only in family accommodation, which is still provisional (but based on building records and certificates), the number of transactions indicates a growth of 19% in the first half compared to the same period last year. And the estimated values for 2018 compare with just over 100 thousand registrations in 2015, close to 130 thousand in 2016, jumping to near 160 thousand in 2017.

The number of transactions could be "much higher if the supply of houses for sale was greater," said Luís Lima, president of APEMIP, adding that, in order to eliminate the needs of demand, about 70,000 new houses are needed in the market real estate, especially in Lisbon and Porto. "And in this regard, the associative leader says that no steps are being taken to increase supply and make it more accessible to young people and middle-class families.

The latest data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) show that the cities of Lisbon and Porto saw the selling price of their homes soar more than 20% in the first quarter of this year. They were the only ones in the country to show such strong growth. Lisbon is the municipality where the median value of the housing price is highest, reaching 2581 euros per square meter, a growth rate of 20.4%. But in some parishes in the capital, such as Santo António, the year-on-year rise soared 40% (4083 euros per square meter).