Demonstration to demand measures to address the housing crisis, September 30, 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal (Patricia DE MELO MOREIRA)
Thousands of people marched through the streets of Lisbon and around twenty other cities on Saturday afternoon to demand measures to address the housing crisis, which is particularly affecting large urban centers.
“Stop!”, “Help”, “Houses to Live” we could read on the signs of the thousands of demonstrators who marched through a large avenue that crosses the popular neighborhoods of the Portuguese capital at the call of around a hundred people associations.
“Lisbon has become a city for foreigners, the Portuguese can no longer live there,” denounces Marta Saraiva, a young 27-year-old from Lisbon who, despite a series, considers the actions of the socialist government to be inadequate to deal with the housing crisis Measures recently announced.
The real estate crisis has been simmering since bankruptcy-threatened Portugal asked for international financial aid in 2011.
To replenish its coffers and meet the demands of its creditors, the country opened up to foreign capital thanks to a series of measures, including “golden visas” – residence permits for wealthy investors – or tax advantages for foreign pensioners and “digital nomads”.
These investors have been instrumental in revitalizing the real estate market and redeveloping major cities, which have seen a surge in short-term tourist accommodation in response to the influx of vacationers.
According to a study by Portugal’s Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, housing costs increased by 78% in Portugal between 2012 and 2021, compared to 35% across the European Union.
Alcina Lourenço, a 49-year-old Lisbon resident interviewed by AFP, saw her rent increase twenty-fold, from 30 to 600 euros. Unable to cope, she was asked to leave her apartment in a central area of Lisbon, where she has lived since she was six.
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An “unbalanced” market
The arrival of foreign investors has “unbalanced the market” by widening the gap “between salaries and property prices”, while almost a quarter of Portuguese workers live on a minimum monthly salary of 886 euros, explains Agustin Cocola-Gant, researcher at AFP the Department of Geography and Regional Planning of the University of Lisbon.
The increase in interest rates decided by the European Central Bank (ECB) in response to the inflation crisis has made the situation even more dramatic in a country where 87% of property loan holders are subject to variable interest rates.
“My monthly wage went from 400 to 647 euros,” Claudia Martins, a 40-year-old teacher who lives alone in a northern suburb of the Portuguese capital, told AFP.
She decided to take out a loan to buy an apartment in 2021 because it allowed her to significantly reduce her housing budget. Today she has to decide to look for a second job to cover her monthly payments.
To help nearly a million families, the government decided last week to give borrowers a reduced interest rate for two years.
This system complements the package of measures presented in March to curb price increases, which in particular provides for the end of “golden visas” or the forced rental of apartments that have been vacant for more than two years in the most populous regions.
But this program is anything but unanimous. After the president rejected his veto in August, the Socialist majority in parliament voted again last week, despite criticism from the opposition left and right.
“These measures are based mainly on tax advantages to convince owners to lower rents a little (…), but what we are asking for is rent control,” explains Rita Silva, activist of the right to housing association Habita, one of the organizers of the demonstrations, on public television RTP.
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