According to a just released Portuguese Housing Market survey, due to falling demand, residential property prices in Portugal fell further in January. Algarve is the region suffering the worst conditions in the whole of Portugal, the survey reveals. In the Algarve, where the real estate market is heavily oriented towards second homes, prices and price sentiment has been hit harder than elsewhere. In Lisbon and Porto, market conditions are slightly more favourable. Portugal is becoming attractive for property investment as prices continue to fall.
The majority of Europe’s residential property markets are undergoing recovery. Germany and its southern neighbors, France and Belgium all experiencing rises in real house prices in 2010, the new European Housing Review 2011 from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors shows.
Ireland, Hungary and Cyprus experienced falls while Spain, Greece and Portugal saw moderate falls despite their economic difficulties. Prices were slightly down in the UK, Netherlands, Poland and Italy and the Baltic States were recovering from their major crashes.
Portugal’s property market had previously shown positive signs of recovery from the economic recession, showing a 0.2 per cent annual price growth in 2009. Its European neighbours Spain and France, by contrast, registered falls of 4.4 per cent and 6.3 per cent respectively.