Weak February since 2003 – Sunnmørsposten

The decline comes after a month of January with strong growth of 3.1 percent. Nominal house prices increased by 0.2 per cent from January to February. Last year the increase was 1.1 percent.

Major differences

– This will probably surprise some. On balance, January and February the second weakest start to the year in the past decade. But there are large regional differences, says CEO Christian V. Dreyer in Real Estate Norway.

On the forecast

Normally prices rise most in January and February. Dreyer characterize developments as “somewhat weaker than expected in February” after the strong January-development.

– Yet we lie about our forecast with an annual growth of 3 to 5 percent in 2016, says Dreyer.

the strongest development he sees in Oslo, Bærum and Sarpsborg, which has an inflation of 0.9 percent in February. Weakest developments in Stavanger and Sandnes with respective decreases of 1.1 and 0.8 percent. Overall, the housing prices increased by 4.4 percent over the last 12 months.

Slower inflation

He points out that twelve-month growth is slowing in all major cities. There is still pressure in the Oslo market, but inflation is decreasing rapidly compared with levels the previous path. In Oslo has declined from 13 percent to 8.1 percent now.

– In the eastern area there is still pressure in the market, although the rise in prices here is decreasing. Tromsø experienced in 2015 a growth of nearly 17 percent at the highest. Now this is an increase in the Tromsø region of 3.1 per cent. Bergen is also now Mohawks, says Christian V. Dreyer.

The duality in the market

It is the supply side that separates the regional housing markets most. In Stavanger and Kristiansand increase the supply of housing, while in the Oslo area constantly set new record lows in the number of homes for sale.

– We see an increasingly clear dichotomy in the housing market. In oil-sensitive regions such as Western and Southern developer housing market steadily weaker, while eastern area still remains very good price ratio, says Dreyer.

In Stavanger, house prices fell 7.3 percent in the last 12 months and Property Norway expects several months of negative trend in prices. Number of real estate sales in Stavanger is now 26 percent lower than a year ago.

– This is dramatically, when we know that there are many homes for sale, says Dreyer.

but also in Oslo, it sold 10 percent fewer homes in the first two months compared with a year ago. But here, it’s that there are few homes in the market.

– In the rest of the country it is mostly quite normal activity, says Dreyer.

It took on average 41 days selling a home in February. This is marginally faster than a year ago. It was sold 6,401 homes in February, down 4.4 percent from last year when it was set a new sales record in February.

(© NTB)