Portugal’s, property sales volume was up by 30% in the first half of the year, leading pundits to bet that 2017 will be the hottest property market since 2010.
The increase shows that 80,000 homes have been shifted in six months., according to Luís Lima, the president of the Association of Real Estate Agents and Real Estate Companies (APEMIP).
Lima reckons that the reasons for this growth include demand from foreign investors, "many as a result of the Golden Visa programme" and Portuguese buyers, fed up with getting close to 0% from their deposits in national banks, leading them to invest in real estate.
Portuguese residents also are tired of having their funds misappropriated by the country's banks and prefer to put funds into something they at least can touch.
Lima also is delighted and optimistic that a new Secretariat of State for Housing has been created but gives no reason why.
Besides a trickle of foreigners arriving under the Golden Visa programme, there is a growing demand for properties to be turned into short-term rental accommodation for tourists, under the Alojamento Local scheme or, more likely, illegally.
Another feature of the figures announced today is that more houses are being bought for cash, using mortgages only as a top-up where necessary.
The current low interest rates on bank deposits means it is more profitable to invest in real estate than to deposit the money in the bank. The banking deposit figures bear this out as at the end of the first half of the year, €32.8 billion was on deposit in the national banking system, €3.7 billion down on the year before.
The clamp down on overseas bank accounts also has meant many Portuguese have brought money back into the country and have invested it in local property, rather than suffering embarrassment and fines should their Cayman Islands accounts be discovered by Finanças.
Whether cash funds used to but houses will be traced back to source and questions asked, remains to be seen but the government's IMT 'tax take' from people buying and selling properties is another 'good news' story for the Treasury which therefore may not ask too many questions.
