This is up 15 percent on the number of agencies operating in Portugal the same time last year, according to specialist consultants Keller Williams (KW), in a report by business site Eco – Economia Online.
Testimony of the thriving phase the sector is experiencing is news that the number of new house loans approved by banks exceeded €783 million in April, which is the best four-month start to a year since August 2010.
In June, there were 6,025 real estate companies active in Portugal, a historic new high which is up 15.1 percent on June 2017, and is a number that has been rising exponentially since June 2015.
According to KW’s data, June 2018 represents the sixth consecutive month where more than 140 new companies were created.
“It’s the best progression ever for the national real estate market”, the company said in a statement.
KW reflected that the volume of new housing loans granted by financial institutions reinforces the “financial recovery trend started in February 2013”.
In April 2015, the volume of new loans amounted to €277 million, growing 183 percent by June of this year.
During the first half of this year, residential transaction values were close to historical highs (since 2009) in the Central region, Algarve and Autonomous regions of Madeira.
In relation to the first quarter, almost historical highs were observed in the metropolitan area of Porto, Algarve and in the Autonomous Region of Madeira.
In the first quarter, the average value of transactions was over €133,000 nationally, Eco – Economia online reports, an increase of 8.6 percent on the same quarter last year.
Lisbon stood out as the region with the highest average residential value – of over €179,000 – followed by the Algarve with an average value of more than €162,000.
However, summer has brought with it a slight slowdown in the demand for and sale of houses, and despite the positive phase the national real estate market is going through, it seems that there has been a slight cooling in fervency.
According to the Portuguese Housing Market Survey (PHMS), the residential market witnessed a slowdown in June, with sales growth and housing demand decreasing.
The survey, carried out by RICS and Confidencial Imobiliário (Ci), also notes that a “lack of supply is one of the reasons for this deceleration of activity, by limiting the choices of potential buyers, but also that this performance accompanies the moderation of expectations regarding activity that has been felt in recent months”, a statement accompanying the survey read.
In comments to Eco – Economia Online, Ricardo Guimarães, director of Ci, elaborated “this is not the first time activity in the real estate market has seen a decline in the summer period, particularly with regard to demand from potential buyers. It was like it this year and in previous years, even in the Algarve, despite it being the high season of tourism”.
The survey also reveals that “housing demand in the country continued to grow, but at the slowest pace since December last year”.
Sales show “some regional asymmetry, with Porto again registering steady growth in transactions, while in Lisbon reported sales grew only marginally and in the Algarve there was even a slight decline in monthly terms”.
In turn, the offer “continued to decline in June, this being the 15th consecutive month in which the entry of new homes for sale in the domestic market has shown a decrease”.