Statistics have shown Portugal Property Prices have gone up in 2009

Property prices up
10/4/2010

While most European house prices fell last year, the first decline since the Financial Times began tracking the market in 2000, Portugal managed to be one of the few countries to report a growth in house prices during the economic gloom of 2009.

The Financial Times (FT) this week said that house prices in the Euro Zone fell by 4.6 percent last year in relation to 2008, while the drop was less pronounced in 23 European nations, where a reduction of 2.8 percent was reported.

Spain, so often compared to Portugal in terms of house prices, witnessed a 7.4 percent loss of value on homes. Neighbour Portugal however, managed to buck the trend, and recorded house price increases of 0.4 percent in a year when the global recession wreaked havoc.

Ireland, Slovakia and Iceland were the hardest hit by the housing crisis, with prices falling by 12.4 percent, 11.1 percent and 9.7 percent respectively last year.

Market analysts in Portugal have underwritten the findings published this week in the FT, saying the country has always assumed a cautious approach to real estate development, at least in comparison with countries such as Spain and Ireland, which has allowed it to emerge from the international housing crisis relatively unscathed.

"We never reached levels of high debt and our banks have always been more conservative. This is largely why the crisis has not been as profound in Portugal as elsewhere in Europe", Business Director of Aguirre Newman was quoted as telling Diário Económico this week.

According to the FT, the Eurozone and Europe indexes, house prices fell more than seven percent in the larger, more developed economies such as the UK, Spain and France.

The FT further found that "even Germany, traditionally a more stable market, saw a decline of more than 4 per cent in the second-hand home market and an overall decline of 1.8 per cent."

The biggest falls were in the countries hit hardest by the global financial crisis, the study found. However, quarterly data suggest the worst may be over for the UK, Spain, France and Germany, which registered marginal growth in the fourth quarter compared, with the third.

 

Source the portugal news