House sales prices in mainland Portugal rose 9.6% in the first three months of the year compared to the same period in 2023, 7.6 percentage points less than the year-on-year rate of change of 17.2% recorded in the first quarter of 2023 , show data from the Residential Price Index calculated by Confidencial Imobiliário and released this Monday.
At a year-on-year level, the slowdown in prices continues, but the same is not observed as a chain. During the period under review, house sales prices increased by 2.2% compared to the previous three months. The variation is higher than the 1.6% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023, but lower than that recorded a year ago (4.3%).
However, the acceleration compared to the previous quarter indicates that there is a “reversal of the pattern of smoothing of price increases felt over the last year”, which, if confirmed, goes against the prevailing expectation in the market”, indicates the note from Confidencial Imobiliário.
“Interest rates are expected to start falling in the coming months, and this is improving buyer confidence, which ends up putting additional pressure on prices”, explains Ricardo Guimarães, director of Confidencial Imobiliário, cited in the note .
The platform also indicates that, in the first quarter of the year, 34,300 houses were transacted in mainland Portugal, 5% more than the average of 32,800 sales per quarter recorded in 2023, “confirming the slow but consistent recovery trajectory of the activity that is has been felt since the second half of last year.”
On average, these transactions had a price of 2,447 euros per square meter, reaching 3,413 euros for new homes and 2,326 for used ones.
