The number of unsold homes in Norway’s capital has risen to its highest level since 2017. Prices fell by 1 percent in August, but apparently not enough to attract more buyers, while rising interest rates also cut into sales.
Real estate organization Eiendom Norge reported that 2,550 homes on the market in Oslo remained unsold at the end of last month. Prices had risen 5.8 percent so far this year, but are now beginning to fall.
“The interest rate increases have now begun to seriously bite into the housing market,” Randi Marjamaa at Nordea, a major home lender, told newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN). “We think this trend will continue and that prices will fall through the autumn.”
Norway’s central bank raised its policy rate once again on Thursday, to 4.25 percent and warned of a further hike to 4.5 percent in December. Mortgage rates usually run around two points higher, posing more affordability issues especially for first-time buyers.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
