New figures show that housing sales at one of Norway’s largest homebuilders, Obos, fell 44 percent last year compared to sales in 2022. The real estate division of Norway’s largest bank, DNB Eiendom, notes that holiday home sales also declined, and more than two of three were sold below their asking prices.
Higher interest rates and economic uncertainty have taken their toll, after years of hot real estate markets. “We expected 2023 would be a demanding year and it was,” Obos chief Daniel Siraj stated on Wednesday. Sales of single-family homes fell 25 percent while condominium sales were down 54 percent. The steepest declines were in the Oslo area.
DNB Eiendom, meanwhile, reports that 69 percent of holiday home (hytte) sales were sold under asking prices. Figures from both Prognosesenteret and Eiendomsverdi also show a 17 percent decline in the numbers of registered sales of holiday homes, and far fewer are being built. That’s good news for environmental advocates, however, who object to how large holiday home developments are destroying forests and other nature all over the country, especially in the mountains of Southern Norway.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
