Portuguese accumulated €498 billion in real estate assets, a historic maximum.
Real estate has once again become the main investment destination for Portuguese in 2022. The Banco de Portugal’s (BdP) accounts show that this year families concentrated 498 billion euros in real estate assets (mainly housing). This is the first time in 13 years that real estate assets have accounted for more of a family’s wealth than financial assets.
According to a report by Idealista, there has been a trend in private wealth over the last seven years: the value of real estate assets has grown faster than the capital invested in financial assets (such as deposits). And there is a simple explanation for this: the transfer of wealth into housing was driven by the low interest rates observed until July 2022, together with high house prices.
It turns out that the amount invested by families in real estate assets increased so much that in 2022 it surpassed financial assets for the first time in 13 years. According to the BdP, families owned 498 billion euros in real estate last year, compared with 480 billion euros invested in financial assets. The increase in the value of real estate assets compared to 2010 is 35%, more than the 30% increase in the value of financial assets.
This was also the highest value ever recorded by the BdP for private real estate assets, which grew by 10% compared to 2021.
