The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is on an official visit to Norway every year, and this year they once again wanted to meet with Real Estate Norway to hear our view on the Norwegian housing market.

This year, commercial real estate was also on the agenda, and on this occasion CEO Bård Bjølgerud and Country Manager for Norway Håvard Nustad from Pangea Properties participated and gave a presentation on the commercial property market in Norway and the Nordic region.

Real Estate Norway CEO Christian Vammervold Dreyer briefed on the development in the housing market and the organisation's views on important drivers for housing price developments, including regulations such as macroprudetial regulations.

Tight schedule

- It is always rewarding to have the IMF visit us. They were interested in how the various drivers in the housing market have evolved throughout the year and in particular have been looking forward to reset increase in the interest rate, says Dreyer.

- It is especially an honour that the mission Norway, Jaques Miniane, is now coming back for the second time this year after attending the Real Estate Norway conference in March and participate in pur podcast «Boligbobla», Dreyer continues.

- We know that the delegation has a tightly schedule, so we appreciate that they took the time to listen to our input on the Norwegian housing market, Dreyer concludes.

Reduced risk

Today the IMF also presented its risk assessment of the Norwegian economy and has concluded that Norwegian housing prices are no longer as overestimated as the previous years. However, together with high household debt, the housing market poses a risk to the Norwegian economy and financial stability, according to the IMF's recent assessment.

The IMF also warns the government to soften the measures in the mortgage regulations that will soon be evaluated.

- I share the IMF delegation's concern that developments in the real estate markets and in household debt may pose a risk to the Norwegian economy. At the same time, it is gratifying that the delegation believes that the housing market has become less overpriced in the past year. The government has introduced measures to curb growth in household debt and the dwindling housing prices, which particularly affected first-time buyers. We now see that these work, says Finance Minister Siv Jensen (Frp) in a press release.

From the IMF, the following were present at the meeting: Head of Mission at the European department of the IMF Jaques Miniane, economist at IMF Florian Misch, economist at IMF Vladimir Pillonca, economist at IMF Sophia Zhang and senior adviser at the Nordic-Baltic office, Snorre Evjen.

About the IMF:

The IMF is a UN fund that aims to promote international currency cooperation and international trade, and to ensure stability and predictability in the world economy.

The IMF was created with the aim of monitoring the world economy, advising the world's states on economic policy and providing short-term emergency loans should countries face economic crisis.