According to experts from WorldWay Immigration, the report on housing prices in mainland Portugal for the third quarter of 2018 shows an increase of 15.6% compared to the same period in 2017, with the largest increases in the Lisbon and Porto metropolitan areas.
The report surveyed a total of 278 cities in mainland Portugal, with about one-third (90 cities) experiencing a year-on-year increase in housing prices greater than 10%, and more than 20 cities exceeding the national average increase.
In particular, the increase in housing prices in the Lisbon metropolitan area varied between 10% and 25%, with the highest price increases in the central Lisbon, Cascais, and Oeiras areas, at 18.6%, 24.9%, and 16.7% respectively. Additionally, Odivelas also saw a significant increase of 21.6%, while Setúbal had a lower increase of approximately 9.7%.
In the Porto metropolitan area, the increase in housing prices for the third quarter ranged from 13% to 29%. In recent years, the growth of housing prices in Porto has been significantly lower than in Lisbon, but it became the region with the largest increase nationwide in the third quarter of last year.
According to data from APEMIP, approximately 180,000 properties were sold in Portugal last year, an increase of 25,000 compared to 2017, averaging about 500 properties sold per day, marking the best sales year in nearly a decade, and it is expected that this positive momentum will continue in 2019.
The official data from the National Statistics Institute will be released in March this year, but it is expected that the growth rate for the last quarter of last year will be similar to the previous three quarters. This figure has increased by 125% since 2014. Among all buyer nationalities, Brazil and France remain the largest buyers, accounting for 20% of last year's property sales, approximately 35,000 properties.
Luis Lima, President of APEMIP, stated: "The real estate market still has a trend of continued growth, although it may slow down slightly, which is natural. This year is an election year, which may cause some concerns in the market and have some impact. However, if no negative policies are introduced, I believe the trend of growth will continue to be maintained."