The average price of a home in Norway was NOK 5,039,618 at the end of August.

So far in 2026, house prices in Norway have risen by 4.9 percent.

– House prices rose by a whopping 2.1 percent in August, which resulted in a strong increase in seasonally adjusted house prices of 0.8 percent. There was a startlingly strong growth in house prices in August, especially in light of the fact that July was the weakest July month in the history of house price statistics, says CEO Henning Lauridsen of Eiendom Norge.

– In August, only Fredrikstad/Sarpsborg and Drammen experienced negative seasonally adjusted development. In all other cities in Norway, there was good growth in house prices both nominally and seasonally adjusted. Despite the large increase, Oslo still has the weakest price growth so far this year, now with an increase of 0.3 percent in 2026. With a normal autumn in the housing market, this means that Oslo will end up on the minus side in 2026, he says.

Continued high activity
In August, 9,594 homes were sold in Norway, which is 5 percent fewer than in August 2025.

So far this year, 72,290 homes have been sold in Norway, which is 4.7 percent fewer than at the same time last year.

In August, 13,077 homes were listed for sale in Norway, which is 5.4 percent fewer than in August 2025.

So far this year, 81,483 homes have been listed in Norway, which is 2.2 percent fewer than at the same time last year.
– Activity in the second-hand housing market is still high, even though there are slightly fewer sales than at the same time in 2025. In August, slightly fewer homes were also listed than last year, so the supply side nationally in the second-hand housing market has been reduced throughout the month. But in Oslo in particular, there is still a large supply, says Lauridsen.

It took an average of 50 days to sell a home in August, down from 62 days in July.

Bergen had the shortest sales time with 16 days. Fredrikstad/Sarpsborg had the longest sales time with 90 days.

– Bergen has stood out throughout 2026 with exceptionally fast sales times and in August it is also very fast to sell a home in Bergen. In the rest of the country, the sales time is more in line with what we have seen in recent years, he says.

Ålesund on top

– Tønsberg w/Færder had the strongest seasonally adjusted price development in August with a seasonally adjusted increase of 2.7 percent, says Lauridsen.

The weakest seasonally adjusted price development in August was in Drammen and the surrounding area with a seasonally adjusted decrease of 1.2 percent.

– The largest growth so far in 2026 has been in Ålesund and the surrounding area and Tromsø with an increase of 12.4 and 11.7 percent.

– The weakest development this year is in Oslo with an increase of 0.3 percent, says Lauridsen.

– We expect that the large differences in housing price development around the country will continue through the autumn with a very strong market in the west and in the north. Nationally, we will probably end up slightly below our forecast of 6 percent for 2026 as a whole, says Lauridsen.

Changing the residence requirement is harmful
Just before the summer, the Tax Commission presented its proposal for a tax settlement.

They propose, among other things, several radical changes in housing taxation, including changing the residence requirement for exemption from capital gains taxation on own homes.

– We are very surprised that the Tax Commission proposes to change the residence requirement from one to three years. It will be very negative for both the individual and the Norwegian economy, says Lauridsen.

– A well-functioning housing market is part of the infrastructure of a well-functioning labor market. People must be able to easily move to where the jobs are, and households must be able to change their homes when their needs change. Here, Norway has an advantage through a very efficient housing and transaction system.

– The proposal will affect those who have no real opportunity to adapt to the residence requirement. People get jobs elsewhere, families grow and commuters change their place of residence. Couples move in together, and cohabitations end. When the current rules work well and are well-established, we see no reason to change them.

– We therefore expect that Minister of Finance Jens Stoltenberg (Labour Party) will put this very unfortunate proposal away, concludes Lauridsen.