The former CEO of Novo Banco has spoken out about the resilience of the property market in Portugal, highlighting that there is no “real estate bubble”.
Continuous rising house prices in the country does not mean that Portugal has or will have a real estate bubble, as there continues to be a scarce supply of housing and resilient employment, according to António Ramalho, who was speaking at the Portugal Real Estate Summit.
Today, “house price growth is moderating, with adverse base effects and tighter financial conditions. Demand remains resilient, but transactions are decreasing”, said António Ramalho. But”, despite what many say, in Portugal there is not a real estate bubble and we will never see one”, he highlighted, according to Jornal Económico.
He pointed out several reasons that support his view. To begin with, the job market in Portugal is robust. And the demand for houses continues to be much higher than the existing housing supply (unlike what happened in the 2008 housing crisis, when there were more construction projects than buyers). Furthermore, it was the demand for housing from abroad and high tourist activity that fuelled the growth in house prices in recent years.
The former Minister of Economy and Digital Transition, Pedro Siza Vieira, also ruled out the hypothesis that Portugal would have a real estate bubble. “What António Ramalho demonstrated is that the Portuguese market is actually very mature, where a large part of the Portuguese own the houses where they live, a significant part of these almost two million families have their houses almost paid for”, he stated quoted by the same newspaper.
“Unlike other peripheral destinations, Portugal continues to be a low-risk market due to its local importance. I can’t say that Portugal is the best real estate market in the world, but it is one of the best”, highlighted the former CEO of Novo Banco at the event.