According to idealista, the reduction in the number of real estate transactions in 2023 resulted in a slight drop in IMT revenue (the first since the pandemic), according to budget execution, a decrease, however, mitigated by the increase in house values.

According to budget execution data, released by the Directorate-General for the Budget (DGO), the Municipal Transfer Tax (IMT) generated a total of 1.69 billion euros in revenue in 2023, 1.7 million euros less than a year earlier.

This slight drop essentially reflects the decline in the number of real estate transactions last year compared to the previous year.

Despite the reduction in the number of transactions, the IMT revenue trajectory was eventually dampened by the price effect. Although in 2023 there was a slowdown, house sales prices continued to rise. In 2022, it should be remembered, that the sale price of houses increased by 18.7%.

For its part, commercial real estate investment fell by 42% in 2023, according to information recently released by consulting firm Cushman & Wakefield.

This market dynamic explains the evolution of IMT revenue, which, except for the initial year of the pandemic (2020), has registered successive annual growth since 2011, the year in which Portugal began implementing the financial assistance program imposed by the 'troika'.

In 2018, the IMT surpassed the barrier of one billion euros in revenue for the first time and in 2022 it surpassed for the first time that generated by the Municipal Property Tax (IMI).