The numbers gathered by Confidencial Imobiliário analyse the acquisition of buildings by private citizens and show that international buyers represented a 35% share of all investment on housing, which in total reached 2.110 million euro. This number represents a 12% drop yoy, influenced by the lower dynamic shown by domestic buyers, whose trade volume decreased 19% to 1.360 million euro. Portuguese citizens acquired a total of 4.320 housing buildings in 2019.
International buyers increased their investment by 7% yoy. The average ticket increased 45% yoy, to 475.200 euro per transaction.
The number of nationalities also increased when compared to the 80 nationalities registered in 2018. There are 5 countries which continue concentrating more than half of the international investment within Lisbon’s ARU, with an aggregated share of 53%. Those countries are China with 16.7%, France with 15.9%, Brazil with 9.7%, the United Kingdom with 6.0% and the United States with 4.5%.
New measures may have rushed transactions
Ricardo Guimarães, director at Ci, commented these numbers mentioning that «the higher dynamic of foreign investors, in contrast with the behaviour of national investors, may be a response to the changes announced for the legal and fiscal foreign investment incentive mechanisms. This means that faced with the restrictions announced for 2020, these foreign investors may have anticipated their investment decisions to 2019».
According to the expert, «it would not be surprising to observe a natural deceleration in foreign investment in 2020, to which should be added the market breakdown caused by Covid-19. Perhaps this is a good opportunity to reflect on a review of those measures».