Many real estate investors have been looking worldwide when searching for properties to buy and invest in. Many European countries are prime territories for real estate purchases and there are several reasons for this. As stated in a Deloitte article published this year, one of the leading nations for real estate is Norway: “Norway’s macroeconomic environment is ranked an impressive 2nd out of all countries (up from 3rd last year, and continuing an upward trend over the last several years), driven by windfall oil revenue combined with prudent fiscal management.” There are many other reasons why Norway in particular is of special interest for real estate investments:

Population growth.

Norway has a strong and very solid track record for population growth over the past 20 years, especially in the major cities. Based on records from the Central Bureau of Statistics the growth rate has been as high as 1-2% each year between 2012 and 2014. The overall increase in population for Norway is expected to be around 20% in the next 20 years. Along with good population growth you also have a great infrastructure to support those residents. Transportation, entertainment, shopping, education, and food are all easy to come by, which only further increases the value of property here.

Demographic trends.

Considering that people and businesses continue to move into the country and are focusing on the major cities and surrounding areas, this is sure to have a great impact on the real estate market, and housing demand. This is especially true of the major hubs of the country such as Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim. Population growth over the next 20 years for these major cities is expected to be much larger than the overall national growth. This impact could very well drive demand and prices on its own and stimulate a healthy real estate market for buyers and sellers.

Low unemployment.

As much of Europe and the rest of the world struggles with high unemployment rates and a lack of jobs, the unemployment rate in Norway has been holding steady at 3.5% . Compared to other major nations this is amazingly low- the UK has come in with 7.1%, the US has been hitting close to 6.5% and Spain has had rate as high as 26.7% in recent years. This means Norway is more likely to have people with good incomes that can buy and sell homes and that would be interested in the property you own in Norway.

Real estate specifics.

Norway has been very lucky in that they have not been overly impacted by the financial turmoil that much of the world seems to be suffering from. Their last major economic upset has not surfaced since 2007, and the commercial real estate market has maintained strong and stable. The vacancy rate is still low and decreasing, and that keeps the value of homes high making it a great market to invest in!