Average prices of both new and used homes fell in Norway last month, another sign that the country’s once-red-hot residential real estate market has cooled off. While many cite a better balance between supply and demand, it’s not good news for builders of all the housing projects now underway. “It seems like there’s been a […]
Giant skyscraper plan meets fury
October 9, 2018
Local opposition is strong to wealthy Norwegian industrialist Kjell Inge Røkke’s plans to build a skyscraper at Fornebu in Bærum, west of Oslo. Residents literally in the shadow of the 60-story building are already calling it Norway’s version of Trump Tower. “We are outraged over these plans,” Anne Greve, deputy leader of an organization representing […]
DNB raises its mortage rates
September 21, 2018
Norway’s biggest bank, DNB, didn’t waste any time in raising interest rates on its home loans. It became the first Norwegian bank on Friday to warn customers that rates would rise by a quarter-point from November 4. DNB’s increase comes just a day after Norway’s central bank announced the same increase in its key policy rate. […]
Record home sales, but prices stable
July 4, 2018
Record numbers of homes were sold in Norway in June, but prices were relatively stable compared to both last year and to the month of May. Housing prices in Oslo, which has long topped price growth lists, seem to have flattened out. “We have unchanged prices when we correct them for seasonal variation,” said Christian […]
Jensen keeps mortgage rules strict
June 20, 2018
Finance Minister Siv Jensen has decided to extend some strict mortgage rules imposed last year on capital requirements and fewer tax breaks for investors. The goal is to keep speculators from driving up real estate prices in an already hot housing market. Analyses from financial authorities and the central bank show that the rules imposed […]
Hot housing market still scares experts
June 8, 2018
Norway’s high and still-rising housing prices have prompted the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to warn Finance Minister Siv Jensen against loosening up the financing rules she tightened less than two years ago. Local economists and even real estate brokers also think capital requirements need to remain strict. An IMF delegation was in Norway this week […]
Housing prices back on the rise
May 4, 2018
Housing prices have recorded their strongest growth for the month of April in 10 years, rising an average 1.8 percent over March nationwide. Sale price growth was highest in Bergen, up 2.8 percent, followed by Oslo, up 2.4 percent. Prices are up by 8 percent so far this year in Oslo, a level that Christian […]
‘Hytte’ sales soar as conflicts rise
March 30, 2018
Never have so many of the once-humble Norwegian mountain cabins called a “hytte” been sold as last year, and sales during the Easter holiday week have shocked brokers. At the same time, though, conflicts are rising over everything from new developments to the high property taxes charged by the local governments where hytte communities are located. […]
‘Hytte’ sales pick up with economy
February 23, 2018
Norwegians still love having a hytte, their own holiday cottage in the mountains or by the sea, and prices are picking up. A sure sign of the current winter holidays in Norway have been all the ads for vacation properties with ski trails nearby. “All signs are pointing upwards in our market, and have been […]
Expansion looms for former Olympic ski resorts
February 19, 2018
Investors have big plans for the two Norwegian ski resorts Hafjell and Kvitfjell. The new owners claim it will represent the biggest investment since both were first developed for the Olympics at Lillehammer in 1994. Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) reported that state-owned Investinor sold its 49 percent stake in Alpinco, the company that owns and […]
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