The average selling time of a property has fallen from the dark days of recession when owners could expect to wait over two years before a buyer was found.
The turnaround has been extraordinary, in 2017 almost 85% of the homes that were put on the market took less than six months to find a new owner.
Sales volume is increasing: this year, the number of homes sold is expected to grow between 10 and 15% on 2017's volume.
Luís Lima, from the estate agents’ association, APEMIP, said that "in 2014 and 2015, the average selling time was over two years and currently one third of the real estate takes between one and three months to be sold."
"The percentage of sales in less than three months will increase this year," said Lima.
Estate Agency data shows that almost 85% of real estate takes up to six months to be sold, with 37.7% taking between one and three months and 46.67% taking between four and six months.
Only 4.44% of the houses listed are still in agents’ books at year later.
APEMIP data indicates that 270,000 domestic and commercial property transactions took place last year, a figure that is expected to approach 300,000 by the end of 2018.
According to a report in Público's, the number of transactions increased 19% in the first half of 2018 compared to the first six months of 2017.
For Luís Lima, the number of transactions could be "much higher if the supply of houses for sale was greater."
The leader of APEMIP said that for demand to be satisfied, about 70,000 new properties are needed in the real estate market, especially in Lisbon and Porto.
