Residential Bank Valuations Up 5.7% in the First Two Months of the Year

The new mortgages issued by financial institutions in Portugal totalled 1.967 billion euros in the first two months of the year.

According to AICCOPN’s (Association of Civil Construction and Public Works Industries) Statistical Synthesis of Housing, the figure is equivalent to a growth of 3.7% y-o-y. Bank valuations conducted during the mortgage application process rose by 5.7% to a new high of 1,174 euros/m2.

New licenses for residential construction or refurbishment, issued by Portugal’s Municipal Councils, fell by 6.1% year-on-year during the first two months of 2021. New builds fell by 2.8%, and renovations dropped by 17.9%.

The analysis also revealed that new licences issued for constructing dwellings in new buildings fell by 20.1% y-o-y, to a total of 3,733.

At the same time, cement consumption in the national market remained practically unchanged compared to the same period last year, falling by 0.2% in the first two months of the year.

AICCOPN highlighted the North Region, where the number of licensed dwellings in new builds totalled 10,962 in the twelve months ending February 2021, a 6.7% increase compared to the 10,272 dwellings approved in the previous twelve months. Of these, 53.9% were three-bedroom homes, and 22.1% were two-bedroom dwellings. Bank valuations in the region rose by 6.4% in February to 1,024 euros per square metre.