Houses to buy in the European Union (EU) – and in Portugal – have seen a sharp rise in prices over the last ten years. But the economic context has changed a lot in recent months: the purchasing power of Europeans has declined due to high inflation and housing loans have become much more expensive due to rising interest rates. According to a report by idealista, all these and other factors have cooled the demand for houses to buy in the final stretch of 2022. And, therefore, house prices fell 1.7% in the Eurozone between the fourth quarter of 2022 and the previous quarter, the biggest decrease recorded since the end of 2008. However, in Portugal, prices rose by 1.1% during the same period under analysis according to data from Eurostat.

Looking at the evolution of the cost of homes to buy between October and December 2022 and the previous three months, it is clear that:

Eurostat data shows that the house price index fell in 15 Member States and stabilised in Italy. The biggest falls were observed in Denmark (-6.5%), Germany (-5.0%) and Cyprus (-4.0%). In the remaining countries, homes for sale became more expensive at the end of 2022. The main increases in prices were observed in Croatia (4.7%), Romania (2.5%) and Lithuania (1.9%). Portugal is also part of this list: here, house prices rose by 1.1% between the third and fourth quarters of 2022, according to the data.

Looking at the year-on-year variation in the prices of houses for sale, it appears that there was an increase of 2.9% in the Eurozone and 3.6% in the EU, according to Eurostat. Year-on-year house prices increased by more than 10% in seven Member States, including Portugal (11.3%), with the biggest increases being recorded in Croatia (17.3%), Estonia (16.9%), in Hungary (16.5%) and Lithuania (16.0%). On the other hand, house prices fell in Denmark (-6.5%), Sweden (-3.7%), Germany (-3.6%) and Finland (-2.3%).