In the aftermath of the financial crisis, recent discussions are occurring at European level within Member States, the ECB and the European Commission, focusing on the possible emerging risks, including housing prices increases. Nevertheless, this is also a topic of monitoring under the Macroeconomic Imbalances Procedure. Despite the fact that in the 2018 Country Report for Portugal, the European Commission considered that “the risks linked to renewed dynamism in the housing sector appeared to be contained currently”, it stated that “it would warrant closer monitoring if the current rapid pace of real house price growth is sustained over the medium term”.

With the aim to better understand what is happening on housing market in the last 20 years, this work focus on the developments related to households and explore both demand and supply side of the equation, exploring different sources to assess the possibility of a bubble.

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