House prices are growing

The real estate market has grown two and a half times in the last four years, reaching 46,000 transactions in the second quarter of 2018, but it is contributing to the worsening of social inequalities. This is one of the conclusions of the fourth report of the Observatory on Crises and Alternatives, which was published on Tuesday (January 22, 2019) and which has as its theme "The new housing issue in Portugal: an approach to political economy ".

 

According to the coordinator of the study, Ana Santos, the real estate market "is going through an unprecedented historical moment, with housing prices growing uninterruptedly and substantially above wage developments, making housing increasingly less accessible to ever more significant layers of the population".

 

The study is the result of research carried out by researchers from the Center for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra and the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning (IGOT) of the University of Lisbon.

 

Cited by Lusa, who had access to the study, the researcher said that "financialized housing" has become "an increasingly determinant mechanism of reproduction of social inequalities, a result of strengthening the economic and political weight of real estate."

 

According to Ana Santos, the new Urban Lease Law, approved in August 2012, contributed to the sale of houses: "Although the explicit objective was to stimulate urban leasing, the result has been, however, the acceleration of the term of the lease agreements, with a view to the sale of real estate or new uses, such as Local Accommodation (LA). "

 

"Financialized housing" has become "an increasingly important mechanism for the reproduction of social inequalities, a result of the reinforcement of the economic and political weight of real estate," concludes the study

 

According to the researcher, since 2014 there has been an accelerated growth in the number of transactions, the vast majority of existing apartments, having multiplied by two and a half times in just four years, reaching 46 thousand transactions in the second quarter of 2018, at the same time as the number of apartments registered as AL multiplied by five, reaching 14.5 thousand apartments.

 

The contribution of foreign investors

The Residence Permit for Investment Activity (ARI) - so-called gold visas - was not forgotten in the study. "Between October 2012 and September 30, 2018, of the 6,562 residence permits granted, 95% were obtained through the requirement of the acquisition of real estate," said Ana Santos.

 

The official added that gold visas, like the tax regime for the non-resident, have contributed to the fact that since 2014 housing prices have been increasing continuously in Portugal, especially in Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve region.

 

House prices up 34% since 2014

According to the study, between the first quarter of 2014 and the second quarter of 2018 housing prices increased by 34% (in nominal terms).

 

"This evolution of housing prices against the incomes of the Portuguese population makes housing increasingly less accessible in places of greater pressure, replacing national owners with owners of more advanced economies or with greater economic power, and residents habitual residents absent a good part of the year and occasional visitors, provoking not only deep transformations in the lives of people who are forced to remake their lives in other spaces, as to the characterization of places with results still uncertain, "concluded Ana Santos.

 

Source: Idealista News