Ratings agency Moody’s has given the Portuguese property market its seal of approval this week, suggesting the upward trend for house prices is certain to continue for the next few years.
Portugal is already one of the European countries with the highest rises in property prices, but while the rest of the continent is in for “modest increases” to 2020, Moody’s believes Portugal will be steaming ahead, with values increasing by as much as 7-8%.
Holland and Ireland too are ‘in the clover’, says Moody’s, but it’s Portugal that is feeling the most of the sunshine.
The ratings giant explains: “House prices have been increasing since mid-2013. They accelerated in 2017 to levels pre- those in 2008 (the start of the financial crisis)”.
Here, national statistics institute INE says house prices in general have increased by more than 16% since the beginning of 2016.
Lisbon and Porto however show dizzying rates of 47% and 34% respectively - both of which have powered “other entities” to sound alerts that house prices are getting too high, writes Dinheiro Vivo.
These ‘other entities’ - essentially the Bank of Portugal - have stopped short of saying the dreaded words ‘housing bubble’.
Indeed the bank’s impression, says DN, is that prices will eventually stabilise, due to the ‘normalisation of monetary policies in the eurozone’ (as ECB stimuli throttles back) and the “gradual increase in interest rates in coming years”.
By NATASHA DONN natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
Article by kind permission of The Portugal Resident
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