Price fall for Obos homes in April

The article continues below the ad

–

Obos has had strong price growth in the past year, with eleven months in a row with unchanged or rising Obos prices in the capital, before a fall in prices for Obos homes in March.

On Monday, Obos published the price statistics for April, which showed a decrease of 0.9 per cent in Oslo, which makes April the second month in a row with price falls.

The 12-month growth is still strong and prices have risen by 15.5 per cent in the last year.

– The price development is weaker than it usually is in April. The decline in the last two months comes after an abnormally large price jump in February, says chief economist Sissel Monsvold in Obos in a press release.

In April, 513 homes were sold in Oslo. That is 19 percent more than in the same month last year and according to Obos, one must go back to 2016 to find almost as many sales in April.

Expected development

On a national basis, Obos prices fell by 0.4 per cent, while they rose by 14.5 per cent in the last twelve months.

– We see signs of a more normal price development in the future, says Monsvold.

Monsvold believes prices will continue to increase somewhat in the future, but not nearly as much as last year when prices rose more than usual in the autumn. She justifies this with the fact that the interest rate effect is about to decrease and an interest rate rise is expected towards the end of the year.

– Inflation will probably moderate after rising sharply over the past year. In that case, it is an expected development, says Monsvold.

An already high price level for housing, low real wage growth, low population growth and a smaller flexibility quota in the mortgage regulations than last year also have a dampening effect.

More normal market

General manager Hans Anders Skjølberg in Obos Eiendomsmeglere is not surprised by the price drop in the last month.