By Andrea Hargraves 
Renting or buying a home is becoming increasingly difficult. Mainly for young people who generally receive reduced salaries. Ines, Anna, David, Andre and Michaela tell me what they went through regarding this real challenge
There are more and more people who, despite working, do not have the financial means to rent or buy a home. Ines (fictitious name), 37, reflects this reality. “I had a relationship for 10 years, we lived together for some time and were able to rent a house. However, when we separated, I had to move back to my parents' house,” highlights the marketing professional who earns a salary of about 1,300 euros, and lives in Amadora. Now he is back in central Lisbon with his parents.
“House prices have gone up so much, and with what I earn, I can't buy or rent anything that fits my budget. I feel helpless because, in addition to breaking up, I'm having such difficulty finding a place where I can start over. Everything is so expensive and the options are overpriced.” Affordability is practically non-existent,” he laments. “In Portugal, it has become impossible to get a house, even in peripheral areas, like Amadora. Previously, it was thought that living outside Lisbon was affordable, but now prices have risen even dramatically In the surrounding areas.
“There seems to be no escape – whether to buy or rent, the prices are ridiculous. The problem is that salaries are not keeping up with this increase and the supply of affordable homes has simply disappeared. “Even those who were hoping to find something in the outlying areas,” he says. They're struggling to pay their rent.” “All of this makes it difficult to make plans or feel settled because you never know if you'll be able to keep a roof over your head. “It is a crisis that affects a lot of people, and there seems to be no solution in sight.”
Life on the Costa do Sol (and beyond)
Anna and David, both 31, are in a similar situation and have always lived in Oeiras. When they decided to leave their parents' home, they were able to rent a house. However, their landlord decided to increase the rent and they had to move to the suburbs. More precisely, to Queloz.
“We've spent our whole lives in Oeiras: it's our home, the place where we put down our roots. But suddenly the landlord raised the rent to an amount we couldn't afford. It was a shock,” say the young people, who together earn nearly 1,800 euros.
“We had to make the difficult decision to move to Queluz because it was the only option within our budget. It is frustrating, because not only are we leaving behind everything we know, but we also feel expelled from the area that was always ours.” The cost of living in Oeiras has become unsustainable These situations seem to be happening everywhere now. They stress that adapting to the kilos is the next step, but the feeling of loss is great.
What happens on the islands?
Andre Medina and Micaela Vicente are 27 years old and married last year. Despite living together, this is only possible because they have a family support network and they admit that, at this moment, they will not be able to rent or buy a property in Ponta Delgada.
“In our case, in particular, we are not in a very good situation because we recently got married and the vast majority of our savings were spent on the wedding as well as the honeymoon trip,” Andre begins to explain. The young man highlights “low wages and the general rise in the cost of living due to inflation, in addition to the fact that house prices and rents have risen significantly in recent years, especially in the Azores, which has witnessed a significant rise in the post-Covid-19 period.” “It witnessed a real tourism boom, similar to what happened in Lisbon a few years ago.”
“Right now we don't have any kind of savings focused on buying a house. This is mainly because our medium-term plan is to emigrate and experience the lifestyle in another European country, preferably in central Europe. We will probably allocate Our savings are for this investment,” he said, noting that “the cost of housing is currently completely disproportionate to the level of salaries received by the vast majority of the young population in Portugal.”
“The Azores were one of the regions that saw the highest growth in home buying/renting prices, as prices were only affordable for tourists, who could buy a home here with relative ease. Furthermore, an aggravating factor is that despite real estate speculation, Houses are selling in almost record time, which feeds the climate of speculation and rising prices that we are already experiencing,” laments Andrei, adding that at the moment he and Michaela are renting a house and intend “to stay that way for the next few years.”
Regarding tourists, André's point of view is consistent with the data published by ERA Portugal. This revealed that the buyer profile remained similar to last year, with customers of Portuguese, North American, Canadian and Brazilian nationalities.
“And also because I feel that nowadays, to buy a house, you just need some kind of support from the government because even the process of getting a loan from a bank has become increasingly labor-intensive, time-consuming and unattainable,” he added regretfully. Because he believes “a little in the law of supply and demand,” he believes “the solution is to build more houses.”
“With regard to rent, a policy to control the price charged for rent could be interesting, such as setting the maximum price that can be charged in a rental housing area, preferably in line with the salaries charged in Portugal,” he says. Noting also that “there is always a certain pressure from previous generations (parents, grandparents) regarding housing, which then leads to the fact that we do not have a home until the age of 30.”
“To be completely honest, I think it would be easier to immigrate to another European country, with better financial conditions, and buy a house there in the next five to ten years than to stay in Portugal for the same period of time and find a property. It can meet most of my needs for contracts.” The rest of my life.”