The transfer of ownership of light passenger vehicles, that is, sales of used cars, rose 3.5% last year, compared to 2022, in Portugal. But the sale of these vehicles is still 7.5% below what was recorded in 2019, the last year before the covid-19 pandemic. The data is contained in Standvirtual’s annual market study, released this week, which also finds that imports are influencing the entire market.
Imports of used vehicles rose 4.4% in 2023, year-on-year, and soared 37.8% compared to 2019.
For Nuno Castel-Branco, general director of Standvirtual, the numbers show that “the Portuguese continued to show interest in buying vehicles”. And, “typically”, he says, the used market “is stable”, with the year 2023 proving to be “normal” and “positive”.
However, the numbers also demonstrate a negative dynamic in the market due to imports, with an excess of supply across the entire market (used and new).
Standvirtual’s analysis claims to have observed a “stabilization” in the used car market over the last year. This is factual considering the aforementioned increase in property transfers.
However, it is pointed out that the growth in imports added to sales of new light vehicles last year, which grew 27.2% – data from the Automobile Association of Portugal (ACAP) released in January – “one would expect” a “negative” dynamic throughout 2023, mainly due to excess supply”, according to Standvirtual’s analysis.
“We imported 100,000 used cars, 50% of new sales. A ratio that only Eastern European countries have”, stated the president of ACAP, Hélder Pedro, in an interview with Dinheiro Vivo in February. In the summer of 2023, Roberto Gaspar, president of the National Association of Automotive Commerce and Repair Companies (Anecra), already warned that imports of used vehicles were growing since 2021.
Imports, according to Standvirtual’s market analysis, were a “way for national sellers to replenish stock [automóvel]”, taking into account the “period of shortage of vehicles [2021 e 2022]” on Portuguese stands due to demand.
The “progressive growth” of imports, the study points out, took place until August last year. From then on, imports fell, “falling below the number of vehicles imported in 2022”.
“Market dynamics remain positive until August 2022 with greater demand than supply”, becoming “negative from September onwards”. “And it remains negative throughout 2023, decreasing by around 25% in the month of August, compared to the previous year”, reads the Standvirtual note sent to the editorial team. “These values are related, above all, to the excess supply available on the market throughout 2023”, it reads.
Imports helped to reduce the average expected sales time in relation to stock supply, the Standvirtual study also notes. But the so-called market supply “increases again from October [de 2023]”, precisely because there is “more supply than demand and longer expected sales times”.
During the year 2023, “significant increases in sales” were recorded in the districts of Beja (+24%), Bragança (+16%), Viseu (+14%) and Santarém (+13%), with the annual report from Standvirtual highlighting a 6% contraction in used car sales in Lisbon. Castelo Branco (-17%), Évora (-15%) and Portalegre (-14%), were the regions to record the biggest drop.
With “the cooling of demand and the increase in supply”, the average sales price grew by “around 4%”, according to the study. At the end of 2023, depending on the desired vehicle segment, prices could range from less than 14 thousand euros to 34 thousand euros.
