The surge in Lisbon's residential housing supply continues

Portugal continues to experience a large increase in residential construction, the bulk of which has occurred in the nation's capital, Lisbon.

For wider Portugal, Q1 2017 experienced an increase of 11.9% of buildings granted planning permission in the country this quarter and an increase of 28.1% from the same period in 2016 (4,900 total planning permissions granted). The total number of construction projects completed in Q1 2017 increased 8.9% QoQ and 15.9% YoY (2,900 total completed).

For new construction, the initial estimates indicate an increase in planning permission of 35.3% YoY. For rehabilitation projects, planning permission increased 17.3% YoY.

New construction accounted for 68% of all planning permission in Q1 2017. Of this, 67% accounted for residential construction.

Delving deeper into these statistics, we see a large majority of this activity occurring in Lisbon.

The single largest YoY increase in planning permission occurred in the Greater Lisbon area with an increase of 69%. This far outweighs in the increases in the Algarve at 6%.

Construction projects completed also increased 69% in Lisbon.

Other areas in Portugal offered a different picture: the amount of construction projects in the Azores decreased 30.6% and also fell in the Algarve by 4.5%.

The data presents a clear increase in supply of residential housing. This should be noted during the due diligence for any new residential scheme.

Data Source: INE