Over 30 percent of homes for sale – E24

The company says the market has a lot more properties than it did at the same time last year, and never before have so many people clicked on housing ads.

However, the levels are lower than they were in 2018-2020.

Rising interest rates, price growth and increasing electricity costs do not seem to reduce Norwegians’ willingness to pay for used homes.

In May, home prices rose 0.8 percent nationally, which is an increase of 7.7 percent so far this year. In Oslo, house prices rose 1.1 percent in May.

However, the picture is complex. Price evolution applies to sold homes. At the other end, an inventory of unsold homes is being built.

There are now 16,700 homes for sale on the Finn.no market.

That’s 33 percent more homes available nationwide right now than at the same time last year, Finn eiendom’s product manager Jürgen Hellestveit told E24.

– Although supply now appears to be high nationally, we won’t fall any further from 2020, 2019 and 2018 as supply was significantly higher at this time of year, says Hellestveit.

Register interest in housing ads

In the largest market, Oslo, there are around 1,900 homes for sale. This is 20 percent more than in the same period last year, but at the same time less than in 2021.

– Here, too, ad traffic remains very high and rises according to the volume of ads, says the Finnish manager.

On the other hand, never before have so many people clicked on housing ads on Finn as they did in May this year. The increase is 13 percent over the same period last year, and 8 percent so far this year.

These numbers indicate that today’s homebuyer has many homes to choose from, and housing interest measured in ad traffic has never been higher than the month we put it behind us, says Hellestveit.

The interest rate in Norway has been steadily rising over the past year and a half. In late May, Norges Bank raised its main interest rate by a new 0.25 percentage point, to 3.25 percent. It is the highest level since 2008.

Curbing the sharp rise in rates was the main objective of the increase in interest rates.

Banks have followed suit and set mortgage interest rates in line with increases from the Bank of Norway.

Handelsbanken Chief Economist Sarah Midtgaard previously indicated that homebuyers are not afraid of Norges Bank’s interest rate hike.

At the same time, you think we’re seeing the beginning of a decline in housing prices.

– The number of unsold homes increased in May, and there is likely to be a significant drop in home prices in the summer, says Midtgaard.

Spring version

May is usually a good month for the housing market. Spring is the time when many homes are often put up for sale, and the period is referred to as the Spring Edition.

This month of May also features high home turnover and many homes for sale, according to Eiendom Norge.

Almost 10,300 homes were sold in Norway in May, down 1.3 percent compared to May last year.

It took an average of 35 days to sell a home in May, down from 40 days in April. At the same time, 12,869 homes were put up for sale, up 9.9% from May 2022.

We may have seen a price peak this month. Henning Lauridsen, Managing Director of Eiendom Norge to E24 said earlier this week that it will flatten out in the future and so we believe in a small drop in prices after the fall.

Finn.no is owned by Schibsted. E24 is a subsidiary of the Schibsted Group. Some E24 journalists own shares in Schibsted, by participating in the group’s equity savings programme.