By Miguel Pereira and Pedro Nunes
LISBON, April 1 (Reuters) – Thousands of people took to the streets of Lisbon and other Portuguese cities on Saturday to protest against rising rental and house prices, at a time when high inflation makes it even harder to reach at the end of the month.
“There is a tremendous housing crisis today,” said Rita Silva of the Habita group at the Lisbon protest. “It’s a social emergency.”
Portugal is one of the poorest countries in Western Europe, with government data showing that more than 50% of workers earned less than 1,000 euros ($1,084) a month last year. The minimum monthly salary is 760 euros.
Rents in Lisbon, a tourist hotspot, have risen 65% since 2015 and sales prices have skyrocketed 137% in that period, according to figures from Confidencial Imobiliario, which compiles data on housing. Rents rose 37% last year alone, more than in Barcelona or Paris, according to another property data company, Casafari.
The situation is especially tough for young people.
The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Lisbon is around 1,350 euros, according to a study by the real estate portal Imovirtual.
The Socialist government last month announced a package of housing measures that, among other measures, ended the controversial “Golden Visa” plan and barred new licenses for Airbnb properties, but critics say it is not enough to reduce prices in the short term.
At the rally, illustrator Diogo Guerra, 35, said that every day he hears stories of people struggling to find housing. “People who … work and are left homeless, people evicted because their house is turned into short-stay accommodation (for tourists),” he said.
Low wages and high rents make Lisbon the third least viable city in the world to live in, according to a study by insurance brokerage CIA Landlords. Portugal’s current inflation rate of 8.2% has exacerbated the problem.
“With my salary, which is higher than the average salary in Lisbon, I can’t afford to rent a flat because it’s too expensive,” says Nuncio Renzi, an Italian sales executive who lives in the capital.
(1 dollar = 0.9226 euros) (Reporting by Miguel Pereira and Pedro Nunes, Writing by Catarina Demony, Editing in Spanish by Manuel Farías)
Source: Ambito
