Portuguese Housing Market Survey

“Buyers are getting more cautious and sensible about prices. A comment from a PHMS’ respondent suggests that current global market sentiment is pointing to the near future being marked by stabilization and consolidation. The same agent adds that vendors are seeing their houses taking longer to sell, showing that, very often, asking prices are much higher compared to the effective closing prices in each location. This is confirmed by Confidencial Imobiliário´s information system, that shows a 22% price gap between demand and supply.”

“The January survey results show a recovery in market expectations, even if momentum is more subdued than this time last year. Sentiment is now consistent with the still positive macro backdrop, despite downside risks. Indeed, the economy expanded by a solid 2.1% last year and, although growth may lose a bit of impetus, the outlook still remains reasonably bright.”