Rising prices and falling housing transactions

INE revealed this Friday that housing prices increased last year, but less than in 2022. The number of transactions in 2023 decreased, both in number and in value, compared to the previous year.

According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), in 2023, the Housing Price Index (IPHab) “grew 8.2%, 4.4 percentage points (pp) less than the variation recorded in 2022, while “the prices of existing housing increased by 8.7%, above the rate of change observed for new housing, 6.6%”.

According to the organization, in a note published on its website, in the last quarter of last year, “the year-on-year variation rate of IPHab was 7.8%, 0.2 pp more than in the previous quarter. In that period, “the prices of existing housing increased at a faster rate than that of new housing, 8.1% and 6.9%, respectively”.

With regard to housing transactions, INE points out that in “the year 2023 as a whole, 136,499 homes were transacted, for a total of 28 billion euros”, results that “represent reductions of 18.7% and 11. 9%, in number and value, respectively, in relation to the year 2022.

According to the statistical body, the “reduction was particularly intense in transactions involving existing homes, which recorded rates of change of -21.4% in number and -16.5% in value”, while “in new homes , there was a 6.1% reduction in the number of transactions and a 2.6% increase in value”.

Data from the last three months of last year show that “in the 4th quarter of 2023, 34,126 homes were transacted, corresponding to a year-on-year reduction of 11.4% (variation of -18.9% in the previous quarter) and a reduction in chain of 0.4%”.

According to INE, in this period, “the value of transacted housing totaled 7.2 billion euros, 2.6% less compared to the same period in 2022”.

The statistics also reveal that Families purchased 116,752 homes in 2023, for a total of 23.5 billion euros, “which represents an annual reduction of 19.8% in number and 13.8% in value”.

Acquisitions of accommodation by buyers with tax domicile outside the National Territory last year decreased by 3.1% in number and 1.4% in value, with 10,391 homes being transacted, for a total of 3.6 billion of euros.