Despite the «short-term apprehension», domestic and foreign real estate investors manifested a «cautious optimism», shared Hugo Santos Ferreira, executive vice-president at APPII.
Hugo Santos Ferreira spoke during the online conference « Covid-19’s impact on the real estate market», which was shared and intervened by more than 1.000 of the sector’s professionals. He pointed out that «if all turns out for the best, at the end of the year we might see the sector recovering. But it’s not worth it to say there won’t be a negative impact on the sector, in particular in terms of attracting foreign investment and the stagnation of the construction companies due to quarantine periods».
He also predicted an immediate halt in terms of sales, besides the suspension of several types of construction contracts. Segments connected to tourism, namely local accommodation, hotels and housing, will be the most affected, that is, «anything that involves tourism and individual investment».
Ricardo Sousa, Century 21’s CEO, confirmed that «we are now registering the cancellation of properties’ visitations, but some acquisitions were only suspended, not cancelled. People are waiting for the situation to normalize so they can get back to the market».
José Araújo, in charge of the Specialised and Real Estate Credit Section at Millennium bcp, believes that it is important «not to see this stage as the end of an interesting cycle in real estate, but rather as a setback. Activity will then return to normal».
José Cardoso Botelho, from Vanguard Properties, also considered that this is a temporary situation: «some clients cancelled their reservations, but this does not represent less interest, but a delay. We are confident that we will be able to overcome this situation»