The real estate sector for Portugal has seen a strong start to the year, especially within the residential market, according to the latest housing market survey.

The end of 2018 saw the property market slowing in the country however, this has turned around during the past few months with the survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Confidencial Imobiliário showing positive results for January.

New buyer enquires have not shown a marked increase during the past four months, however numbers remain stable with agents across the country.

According to the report, sales expectations have increased in January compared to previous months with agents across the regions of the Algarve, Lisbon and Porto all stating that this is currently the case.

The highest levels of improvements in the market were registered in the Algarve, with less positive sentiments in the capital and the northern city of Porto when it came to new sales' instructions.

Once again, the lack in new instructions for agents is being blamed on a lack of product to sell within the market.

Years of under development of property in Portugal, as a whole, has left a lack of available property particularly for those wishing to invest in the market for the first time.

The report also noted that a net balance of +17% of respondents reported a rise in prices over the period, although momentum appears to have faded over the past six months.

Looking ahead, 43 percent of contributing agents said that they believe that prices will be higher in the industry in a year’s time, while the five-year forecast points to an average price increase of 2 percent each year.

‘’Buyers are getting more cautious and sensible about prices. A comment from a respondent suggests that the current global market sentiment is pointing to the near future being marked by stabilisation and consolidation,’ said Ricardo Guimarães, director of Confidencial Imobiliário.

He added: “The same agent added that vendors are seeing their houses taking longer to sell, showing that, very often, asking prices are much higher compared to the effective closing prices in each location. This is confirmed by Confidencial Imobiliário´s information system that shows a 22% price gap between demand and supply,” he added.