Study shows Lisbon as the third most expensive city in the world

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The Portuguese capital Lisbon emerges as one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in. That’s the conclusion of a recent study carried out by a British insurance company taking into account wages, house prices and the cost of living, based on official data.

The result came as no surprise to Brazilians who live in Lisbon and feel, on a daily basis, this increase in various sectors. Journalist Renata Cordeiro left Rio de Janeiro about four years ago and was not surprised by the research. According to her, there is an increase in the cost of living from food to the value of real estate.

“The difference in the cost of living is quite significant for four, five years, in fact, two years ago for the moment we are experiencing now. Some things are more noticeable, for example, the energy part. big increase in beef, fresh products like fruits, vegetables and medicines. Another thing I noticed was the increase in restaurants”, says Renata.

“The difference in the final bill is very significant. There is also an increase in the value of the properties: I had the intention of buying some properties that were between €180 and €200 thousand [R$ 973,8 mil a R$ 1,082 milhão] and now I couldn’t buy for less than €340 thousand [R$ 1,839 milhão]. The difference is huge!”

Artistic gymnastics teacher Adrian Gomes arrived in Lisbon three years ago and is alarmed by the rising cost of living in the city. In addition to a steady job, the gaúcha gives massages in her spare time to circumvent the crisis and increase family income and is even thinking about leaving the Portuguese capital.

“It was already expensive when I arrived and now it has gone up a lot more. We work, work and work and it seems that we don’t see results, that money doesn’t grow with inflation. The cost of living is very high in Lisbon and it wasn’t like that when I arrived. Now it’s absurd. We can’t save €200 [R$1.082] at the end of the month”, he says.

“Even the price of clothes has gone up. I have a four-year-old son and the child grows fast. We always have to buy clothes and we can keep up with the daily and monthly expenses and we see that clothes have also gone up absurdly, but we can’t not dress the children. It’s very complicated. The cost of living is absurd, really high and I’m not the only one to complain, and I’ve concluded that, in Lisbon, it’s not worth staying anymore!”, she laments.

The budget gymnastics that many families like Adrian’s are being forced to practice is what made businesswoman Cristine Carreira, who has two children, decide to leave Lisbon and move to Braga, a small town in northern Portugal. Even with the move, she says she is scared of the rising cost of living.

“The value of real estate is what really skyrocketed, in fact, it has been skyrocketing and we don’t see where it will end. big, it’s been really scary and it’s something that affects my monthly budget”, says Cristine.

“I have to make restrictions on my lifestyle, such as traveling by car and now I analyze the products I buy at the supermarket carefully because I need to pay more attention to everything that comes into my house because prices are very high and we only see increase daily. It’s very worrying!”, he says.

Cristine says that moving from Lisbon to a smaller city had an impact not only financially, but also in terms of quality of life. ” My departure from Lisbon to Braga happened not only because of the purchase of a much cheaper property of the same type of what I would pay in Lisbon but also because of the quality of life I have here, in a smaller city, where I can get around much easier for schools, for parks, for a hospital”, he says.

“All of this saves me time and money. So when we manage to organize our lives, in a smaller city that offers you everything with such ease, it ends up having an impact on our financial life. What Braga offers me I would find it more difficult to do.” same things in Lisbon”, he says.

London tops the table, followed by Rome and Lisbon

The study that placed Lisbon as the third most expensive city in the world to live in, compared a total of 56 cities and was prepared by calculating the cost of living, the average cost of rent and the average salary.

It is important to underline that the cost of living includes grocery shopping, the cost of transportation, utility bills, sport and leisure activities, cost of clothing and child care. In the insurer’s ranking, Lisbon is second only to Rome and London, at the top of the table as the most expensive city to live in.

Lucas Vitoretti, 25, from Santa Catarina, works at a restaurant in downtown Lisbon. He moved to the Portuguese capital about three years ago and was not surprised by the results of the study.

“The cost of living here in Lisbon is very expensive and it is getting even higher than it was three years ago. I can give you the average of how much I spent when I arrived here. I have always worked in a restaurant, I have practically no expenses with lunch and dinner , but with cafes, supermarket and training supplement. When I arrived alone, I spent an average of €100 [R$ 541] per month or less until, and now my boyfriend and I spend more than €300 on food [R$ 1.623]a month. It’s a significant increase.”

The study entitled “The Cost of Living Crisis: How big is the gap between outgoings and incomings around the world?” reveals that, on average, renting a three-bedroom apartment in Lisbon costs €1,625 [R$ 8.791,25] —subtracting the average monthly salary of around €1,037 [R$ 5.610,17] and the cost of living of €561 [R$ 3.035]the balance at the end of the month is negative in the amount of € 1,149 [R$ 6.216].

In other words, simple calculations are made and the study shows that a family cannot reach the end of the month without debt, and that takes into account that there are no expenses with private schools, which would increase the family cost by at least €500. [R$ 2.705] per child.

Flávia Motta, from Rio de Janeiro, who has lived in Lisbon since September 2014 and works as a real estate consultant, also says that she feels affected by the increase in the cost of living. “The difference I’ve noticed in the cost of living since I arrived in Portugal is a rise in prices, especially in the cost of rent and food: stronger in restaurants and bars, which I believe is linked to the increase in rent prices because the new commercial establishments also saw rent values ​​rise”, he says.

“In supermarkets we also notice a lot. There has been a general increase in the last almost eight years that I have been in Lisbon, but I think that, in food and in rent prices, this is where it is most noticeable, in real estate in general.”

According to Flávia, this increase has an impact on lifestyle. “It affected my life because I live on rent and I have moved a few times over the years, at least half of them were because I needed to find another rental option because the owners wanted to increase my rent too much”, he says.

“I had situations in which they wanted to double when renewing the contract and I had to look for alternatives in other neighborhoods. Nowadays, I know that if I have to move to another apartment, with what I pay for, I will have no alternative. and I will have to leave Lisbon”, he says.

Journalist and public relations officer Marco Hennies, 57, was also forced to change his habits and says that the low wages in Lisbon are the biggest problem he faces today. “I feel that there was an increase in the cost of living and that, on the other hand, there was no readjustment of what we earn, so this is the biggest impact”, he says.

“Increasing things is natural, international crisis, pandemic, all this impacts all sectors of the economy, but the salary does not follow and has been the same for six years and at the end of the month there is less. It is a problem that we have to know how to manage. Now I choose well the cheese I’m going to buy and even the wine, because everything has gone up.”

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