The latest monthly release of Norwegian housing sales numbers nationwide showed an overall price rise of 2.1 percent from July to August, but only half that in the nation’s capital. Oslo’s real estate market remains sluggish: There are lots of homes for sale and it’s taking longer time to sell.
The national real estate brokers’ association Eiendom Norge reports that housing prices are up 4.9 percent so far this year on a nationwide basis. Sales are brisk in Bergen and Stavanger, where prices have risen 9.3- and 7.8 percent respectively compared to last August.
In Oslo, however, the annual rise was just 0.3 percent, the weakest in the country. That’s linked to new small housing units that swamped the market after investors lost various tax advantages on renting them and put them up for sale. Local laws and homeowner associations’ rules have also restricted small units’ use as short-term rentals to tourists, which have made them far less lucrative for investors.
Real estate brokers predict Oslo will end the year with a decline in housing prices but that can ease affordability problems for first-time buyers. Interest rates haven’t risen yet as expected either, but there are warnings of a new quarter-point hike later this year.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
