The figure is equivalent to a slight year-on-year decline of 0.9% in the total amount of mortgage lending. Simultaneously, the average value of bank appraisals of properties conducted within the mortgage application process reached a new series-high of 1,170€/m2 in the month, an increase of 6.1% y-o-y.
The data was published on Friday by the Association of Construction and Public Works Industries (AICCOPN) within its report, the Statistical Housing Summary. The issuance of residential building permits also fell, posting a drop of 10.9% for construction and rehabilitation permits and a decrease of 20.6% in the number of newly licensed dwellings for construction. Despite the decline, the three-month rolling average reported an increase of 0.1% in the total number of licences and 6.3% in the number of dwellings.
AICCOPN’s Housing Statistics Summary also reports the news that, after 27 months of consecutive increases, cement consumption in Portugal fell by 2.8% y-o-y.
Within Portugal, the region of the Alentejo stood out, where the number of newly licensed dwellings totalled 899 in the twelve months ending in January 2021, a decrease of 7.8% compared to the 975 homes licensed in the previous twelve months. Of these, 54.3% were three-bedroom units, and 23.6% had four or more bedrooms. Residential bank appraisals in the area also fell by 0.7% y-o-y in January to €883/m2.
