House prices rose by 1.2 per cent in April 2024. Adjusted for seasonal variations, house prices rose by 0.7 per cent. So far in 2024, house prices in Norway have risen by 7.2 per cent, figures from Eiendom Norge show.
– House prices rose by 1.2 per cent in April, which gave a strong rise of 0.7 per cent seasonally adjusted. There is a sharp increase in nominal house prices in the first four months of the year, but it is worth noting that house prices adjusted for inflation do not have a corresponding growth, says CEO Henning Lauridsen of Eiendom Norge in a press release.
– With a good wage settlement both last year and this year, it is not unnatural that house prices adapt to this improvement in purchasing power. Our assessment is that this, in combination with declining completion of new homes, is what explains much of the strong development now, he says.
Almost 10,000 homes sold
In April, 9,942 homes were sold in Norway, which is 42.9 per cent more than the corresponding month in 2023.
So far this year, 30,730 homes have been sold in Norway, which is 4.3 per cent more than in the same period in 2023.
In April, 10,881 homes were listed for sale in Norway, which is 11.9 per cent more than in the same month in 2023.
So far this year, 32,347 homes have been put up for sale in Norway, which is 3.7 per cent more than in the same period in 2023.
– A large number of homes were both sold and advertised in April, and we had a real spring flood in the housing market in April, says Lauridsen.
It took an average of 54 days to sell a home in April, down from 56 days in February. Oslo and Stavanger and surrounding areas had the shortest sales time with 27 days. Tromsø had the longest sales time with 105 days.
Goes out against the government
In the last month, the government has announced a number of new regulations for the housing market.
– The timing of several of the proposals is lousy. The most radical is the proposal from Municipal and District Minister Erling Sande (Sp) to give municipalities the opportunity to demand that the housing that is built must be housing associations, alternative housing models or rental housing for all time, says Lauridsen.
– This publisher will further weaken housing construction in Norway. And that at a time when housing investment has experienced the strongest setback in many decades. The large drop in the number of secondary homes in recent years in the wake of the government’s massive increase in wealth tax shows how sensitive the housing market is to policy changes. Sande should put the proposal in the drawer immediately, says Lauridsen.
He believes the government should think carefully before adopting regulations that inhibit the construction of new homes in Norway.
– They only risk making a difficult situation in the construction industry even more difficult. If they want to do the housing market and housing construction a favour, they should rather abolish the lending regulations and implement powerful counter-cyclical measures in the revised state budget this May, says Lauridsen.
