Portugal recorded higher property price rises than any other country in the EU last year, new figures show.
Figures from Calcasa reveal that property prices in the southern European country grew by 12.5 per cent last year. Ireland had the next highest growth (11.8 per cent) followed by the Netherlands (8.2 per cent). The average property price in the European Union as whole grew by 5 per cent in 2017.
Portugal and Ireland, together with Italy, Greece and Spain, were hit hardest by the late noughties credit crisis which had an adverse impact on global house prices. Of these countries, Portugal and Ireland are the only ones that show house prices that exceed pre-crisis levels.
In fact, the Calcasa data shows that Italy and Greece are the only countries studied that have experienced a price decline measured over a five-year period (-12.9 per cent and -20.7 per cent respectively) as well as over a three-year period (-2.9 per cent and -6.5 per cent respectively).
In the last five years, Ireland has comfortably recorded the fastest growth in property values in the European Union, with average prices 63.9 per cent higher at the end of 2017 than they had been in 2012. Sweden recorded the next fastest growth (45.6 per cent) followed by Portugal (33.6 per cent).
The average EU property price has increased by 15.6 per cent in this period.
Article published 28th February 2018