House prices in Norway have so far in 2022 risen by 6.7 per cent.

The average price for a home in Norway was NOK 4,535,711 at the end of September.

- House prices fell sharply in September. The strong rise in August has now been fully corrected in the seasonally adjusted housing prices, says CEO of Eiendom Norge, Henning Lauridsen.

- It is normal for house prices to fall in the last three months and we expect that house prices will continue to fall in the coming months. The uncertainty about developments in both the Norwegian and global economy makes it difficult to say whether the fall through the autumn will be stronger than normal. However, we will not be surprised if the price trend this autumn is weak, says Lauridsen.

- On Monday, Finanstilsynet came out with its recommendation for new lending regulations from the new year. Tightening credit rationing now is unwise and could create financial imbalances in the Norwegian housing market and the Norwegian economy. We urge Finance Minister Trygve Magnus Slagsvold Vedum (Sp) to abolish the lending regulations, because the key interest rate has now been normalized after a decade of low interest rates. In addition, the new Financial Agreements Act comes into force on 1 January 2023. When the current duty to advise becomes a duty to refuse, this will change the rules of the game for mortgages in Norway, he says.

Still big sales and bigger offers

In September, 9,798 homes were sold in Norway, which is 5.6 percent fewer than the corresponding month in 2021.

So far this year, 73,089 homes have been sold in Norway. That is 9.4 percent fewer than in the same period last year.

In September, 11,716 homes were listed for sale in Norway, which is 17.3 per cent more than in the same month in 2021.

So far this year, 81,684 homes have been put up for sale. That is 2.9 percent fewer than in the same period last year.

- So far this year, slightly more homes have been sold than in 2019, the year before housing sales picked up strongly during the corona pandemic. Throughout September, the offer side has continued to strengthen and we also see a clear shift in unsold homes per day throughout the month. This is also something that indicates a more moderate price trend going forward, says Lauridsen.

It took an average of 29 days to sell a home in September, which is the same as in August. Bergen and Bodø/Fauske have the fastest sales times with 17 and 18 days. Tromsø had the longest sales time with 38 days.

- Compared to previous years, it is very quick to sell a home in all parts of the country, he says.

Weak price development in all areas

Ålesund and its surroundings had the strongest seasonally adjusted price development in September, where prices were unchanged.

Hamar m/Stange had the weakest seasonally adjusted price development, with a seasonally adjusted decrease of 1.3 per cent.

Kristiansand has seen the strongest development so far this year, with an increase of 10.9 per cent, followed by Drammen and surrounding areas at 9.9 per cent and Tønsberg and Færder at 9.7 per cent.

Asker/Bærum and Follo have the weakest development so far in 2022 with an increase of 4.1 per cent.

- There was a weak development in all areas in Norway in September with the exception of Ålesund and its surroundings. This indicates that the interest rate increases are beginning to work and we expect that increased interest rates will affect the development of house prices in the coming months, says Lauridsen.

- If the development in the Norwegian economy were also to reverse, this would probably affect house prices negatively in the short term. In the longer term, we believe that the supply side through low housing construction will be decisive for the price development, and at the moment new housing sales are weak despite a demographic need for housing, especially in Eastern Norway, says Lauridsen.

- The weak new home sales is also something that argues for repealing the lending regulations, because we know that investments in new homes on contract are very important to ensure a sufficient and stable housing supply in line with the need, concludes Lauridsen.

On 11 October, Eiendom Norges, in collaboration with FINN.no, invites you to a breakfast meeting with a release of the rental housing price statistics for K3 2022 and a panel debate. We ask: What do we want from the rental market?

On 14 October, Eiendom Norge's regional reports for Q3 2022 will be published.

On 18 October, Eiendom Norge and Finans Norge invite you to our annual housing conference at Hotel Bristol in Oslo. Morten Baltzersen (Finanstilsynet), Sara Midgaard (Handelsbanken), Geir Indrefjord (Ministry of Finance), Renate Sørestrand-Hansen (DNB Eiendom) and Sveinung Rotevatn (V) and many more are among the initiators.