House prices have risen by 6.2 per cent in the last year.

The average price for a home in Norway was NOK 4,495,784 at the end of March.

- House prices continued to rise sharply in March. So far in 2022, house prices in Norway have risen by as much as 7.6 percent. This makes the first quarter of 2022 the strongest in the history of house price statistics, says CEO Henning Lauridsen of Eiendom Norge.

January and February were characterized by a very low supply in the second-hand housing market. But during March, the supply side has risen, especially in Oslo. Accumulated so far this year, the sales volume has recovered a lot during March compared to previous years, although it is still significantly lower than in 2021, says Lauridsen.

- During March, many new homes have been put up for sale, and in fact never before have so many homes been put up for sale in Norway during a month of March. The balance in the second-hand housing market is improving.

Despite this, many of our members warn that it takes time to get condition reports in place for homes that are going for sale this spring. We therefore encourage home sellers to prepare home sales well in advance, says Lauridsen.

Big sales, larger supply and fast sales time

In March, 8,976 homes were sold in Norway, which is 7.1 per cent less than in the corresponding month in 2021.

So far this year, 20,676 homes have been sold in Norway. That is 13.7 per cent less than the same period last year.

In March, 10,201 homes were put up for sale in Norway, which is 0.6 per cent more than in the same month in 2021.

So far this year, 22,561 homes have been put up for sale. That is 6.4 per cent less than in the same period last year.

- Even though a record number of homes were put out during March, there are far fewer put out in total than at the same time last year, Lauridsen says.

It took an average of 30 days to sell a home in March, down from 38 days in February. Oslo and Bergen had the shortest sales time with 16 days and Ålesund and the surrounding area had the longest sales time with 57 days.

- The sales time has decreased significantly in many areas in Norway in March, and especially in Oslo and Bergen it is now very fast to sell a home, says Lauridsen.

Continued strong growth in many areas

Tønsberg w / Færder had the strongest seasonally adjusted price development in March, with an increase of 2.2 per cent. Trondheim had the weakest seasonally adjusted price development with a seasonally adjusted increase of 0.7 per cent.

Bodø / m Fauske has the strongest 12-month growth with an increase of 12.1 per cent, followed by Tønsberg m / Færder with 11.9 per cent.

Oslo had the weakest development in the 12-month growth with an increase of 4.1 per cent followed by Romerike of 4.3 per cent.

- At the end of March, Norges Bank both raised the key interest rate and announced seven interest rate increases until the end of 2023. In light of this, there is reason to expect a more moderate development in house prices going forward.

Nevertheless, there is another factor that pulls in the opposite direction, namely expectations of high wage growth and challenges in the new housing market, among other things related to increased material costs for steel, wood and concrete and disruptions in global supply lines. If there are challenges for the realization of new housing projects, this can also have an impact on second-hand housing prices, Lauridsen concludes.