House prices in resorts rise 18% and will keep going

The sale price of houses in luxury resorts in Portugal increased 18% in the second half of 2018, compared with the same period of the previous year and 8% in comparison with the previous six months. This sector of the Portuguese housing market was already depreciating by 10% in the second half of 2017, but is now growing again by around 6% compared with the period before Brexit was first announced as having won the referendum in mid-2016. Rises of 5.5% in house prices in Portuguese resorts are expected for 2019.

This is according to a report from Confidencial Imobiliário (Ci) based on data from the Resort Price Index, an index that monitors the development of transaction prices of housing in this typology.

"This is one of the segments where the impact of the British market is felt most keenly and whose values tend, therefore, to react to currency fluctuations in the Pound Sterling. The instability brought about by the referendum on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union back in June 2016, and the consequent devaluation of the British currency against the Euro, were the pivots for the fall in prices in the domestic market of resorts, in response to this new reality," said Ci in a statement.

According to Ricardo Guimarães, director of Ci, "it is interesting to see the resilience of this market in a context of uncertainty, recovering in the face of loss of previous values."

This scenario can be seen with the most recent results of the Resorts Market Survey, which concludes that "the strong ties to the UK market, despite leading to some easing of expectations" does not prevent "the prospect of continued price increases in resorts". In this sense, Ci anticipates "a valuation of 5.5% for this year, a figure nevertheless lower than the forecasts (for 12 months) of 6.2% and 7.2% indicated in the two previous surveys.”