So far in 2024, house prices in Norway have risen by 6.6 per cent.

The average price for a home in Norway was NOK 4,050,662 at the end of July.

- House prices fell by 1.3 per cent in July, which produced a marginal decrease of 0.1 per cent seasonally adjusted. With the exception of Trondheim, however, there was an increase in the seasonally adjusted prices in all the big cities, which means that the development in July was actually relatively strong in many places in the country, says CEO Henning Lauridsen of Eiendom Norge.

- We expect that this development will continue in August, and that we will get a stronger development this autumn than what we have seen in the last two years, when house prices fell a lot. This is because the lack of supply of newly built homes from 2025 will begin to manifest itself in the future, as well as the fact that interest rates will probably come down during the autumn, he says.

Many homes were sold in July

In July, 5,135 homes were sold in Norway, which is 22.3 per cent more than the corresponding month in 2023.

So far this year, 58,261 homes have been sold in Norway, which is 5.4 per cent more than in the same period in 2023.

In July, 3,713 homes were put up for sale in Norway, which is 0.3 per cent more than in the same month in 2023.

So far this year, 62,265 homes have been put up for sale in Norway, which is 2.6 per cent more than in the same period in 2023.

- A great many homes were sold in Norway in July, and it is only in the corona year 2020 that more homes have been sold in a month of July, and only in 2021 have more homes been sold so far this year. This indicates a strong housing market in Norway with a high demand for housing, says Lauridsen.

It took an average of 62 days to sell a home in July, up from 41 days in June. Bergen had the shortest sales time with 22 days. Hamar m/Stange had the longest selling time with 104 days.

Differences in price trends

Fredrikstad/Sarpsborg had the strongest seasonally adjusted price development in July, with a seasonally adjusted increase of 0.8 per cent.

Ålesund and its surroundings had the weakest seasonally adjusted price development in May, with a seasonally adjusted decrease of 1.5 per cent.

Bergen has the strongest development so far in 2024 with 9.2 per cent. The weakest development so far this year has Bodø with/Fauske, with an increase of 3.4 per cent.

- Price growth so far this year has fallen somewhat back from June, but many parts of the country have continued a solid rise in house prices so far this year. Bergen, Stavanger and Tromsø in particular stand out, says Lauridsen.

The housing crisis is coming now

- For over a year and a half, we have been talking about an upcoming housing crisis due to the failure of sales in the new housing market from early summer 2022. The consequences of this crisis will begin slowly this autumn and will increase in strength in the next few years, as the homes that have not been built will also not be completed, says Lauridsen.

- The government has not taken the warnings about the crisis seriously and has sat for too long and watched the crisis unfold. Much of what they have undertaken is either too small or unsuccessful. The proposal they have at the hearing with the deadline today to give the municipalities the opportunity to decide the form of ownership in new housing projects is particularly flawed, he says.

- The proposal will have very negative consequences for housing construction in Norway and inhibit the dynamics of the housing market. Municipalities should not be able to check developers' assessments. Proposals will weaken flexibility in the housing market, and it is not a given, for example, that the proportion of rental housing in a project must be constant over time. People's needs can change. The government should therefore put the proposal in the drawer, concludes Lauridsen.