Middle East investors strengthen bet on real estate

The Portuguese real estate market should prolong the good moment recorded in recent months. According to a study conducted by Deloitte with market players, the real estate sector should continue to be stimulated by the demand for foreign investors, whose base is diversifying. Investors in the Middle East are boosting interest in Portugal.

Institutional investors continue to show interest in Portugal. At a time when real estate prices are rising sharply, the Portuguese Real Estate Investment Survey for the second quarter of the year, a survey of market players, said that the sector should continue to be supported by "foreign investment and new players stand out as the variables that will have the greatest positive impact in the real estate sector."

Although European investors continue to dominate the ranking, the buyer base is widening to other regions. The Middle East, which in the first quarter survey came up with a 8% share of the list of potential buyers for the next 12 months, now appears with a 15% share.

In terms of investor type, the study anticipates that demand in the next 12 months will be led by pension funds, fund funds and sovereign wealth funds.

"We can see an increase in volume and transaction prices for the next three months in the hotel sector (77%), trade/services (69%) and industrial (62%)," adds the same survey. This trend of higher transactions has already been visible in recent months. More than half of the business carried out in the last 12 months had a value of more than 50 million euros.