Affluent Home Buyers Are Driving up Prices in Southern European Cities

Lisbon was home to the fastest growing luxury-home prices in the first half of this year, according to a report Monday from Savills.

With gains of 4.2% in the six months through June, the Portuguese capital bested the performance of any of the other 29 prime property markets globally analysed by the property firm.

Cities in southern Europe and the Middle East saw their high-end home sectors perform best, with Lisbon followed by Amsterdam, Madrid and Athens, which all logged capital value increases above 3% over the same time. Dubai rounded out the top five with growth of 2.9%.

In southern Europe in particular, prime prices are being driven by a lack of supply, and American buyers have become a “key prospective buyer base,” Savills said, “thanks to a comparatively strong dollar and a growing interest in the lifestyle on offer.”

In the U.S., meanwhile, persistently high interest rates have impacted demand across the. housing market, and as a result, prime residential prices have fallen in three of the four U.S. cities monitored in the report, with only San Francisco seeing positive growth of 0.7% for the first half of the year.

Los Angeles ranked at the bottom of the list, with luxury prices falling roughly 4%.

Across all 30 cities analyzed by Savills, prime residential property prices “remained resilient over the first half of 2024,” recording an average growth of 0.8% and outperforming the 0.6% growth predicted for the year as a whole, the report said.

More than half (60%) of the cities recorded positive capital growth, “reflecting a level of relative confidence in the asset class,” according to Savills.

Looking ahead, “we predict an average capital value growth of 0.5% for the second half of the year, which would bring total 2024 growth to 1.3%,” said Kelcie Sellers, associate director at Savills World Research in the report.

“The ongoing supply-demand mismatch for high-end residential product is projected to fuel price growth in European cities such as Amsterdam, Lisbon and Barcelona, where 2% to 3.9% is forecast in the second half of 2024.”

This article first appeared on Mansion Global

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Affluent Home Buyers Are Driving up Prices in Southern European Cities

Atlas Real Estate is reimagining how people connect with property, combining listings, market insights, local stories and lifestyle content in one destination for those buying, selling or simply exploring the market.