Thousands of people demonstrated this afternoon in Lisbon and in several other large cities in Portugal, in favor of the right to housing, against rising property rental prices, asking in particular government control of rental prices and more social housing.

“Housing: A right for all”, “right or privilege” one could read on banners held by demonstrators in this mobilization.

“I live in fear that at any moment my landlord will ask me to raise my rent,” Ana Reis da Silva, a 32-year-old lawyer who has lived in Lisbon for the past ten years, told AFP.

Portugal it is one of the poorest countries in Western Europe. According to government data, more than 50% of workers had a monthly income of less than 1,000 euros last year. The monthly minimum wage amounts to 760 euros.

“Rental prices must remain affordable,” said Martino Faias Pereira, a 72-year-old pensioner who lives in social housing in the Portuguese capital. He expressed his concern about the steep rise in housing rental prices in recent years.

Demonstrators called for “the right to housing for all, a right enshrined in the Constitution” as families face rising prices, according to the door-to-door movement which called for this day of action along with other associations.

According to Eurostat, the cost of buying a house in Portugal ehas jumped by more than 75% in the period between 2010 and 2022, while rental prices have increased by around 25%.

Rent prices in Lisbon, a tourist attraction city, have soared 65% since 2015 and property sales prices have soared 137% over the same period, according to data from Confidencial Imobiliario. Rents rose 37% last year alone, more than in Barcelona or Paris, according to another real estate data aggregator, Casafari.

The situation is particularly difficult for young people. The average rent for a one bedroom apartment in Lisbon is approx 1,350 euros, according to a study by Imovirtual.

Participating in today’s demonstration, 35-year-old illustrator Diogo Guerra said he hears stories every day of people struggling to access housing. “There are people who are working and are homeless, people who are being evicted because their homes are being turned into short-term rental accommodation (for tourists),” he said.

Low wages and high rents make Lisbon the third least livable city in the world, according to a CIA Landlords study. Portugal’s current inflation rate of 8.2% has compounded the problem.

“With my salary, which is higher than the average salary in Lisbon, I cannot rent an apartment because it is too expensive,” said Nuncio Renzi, a sales manager from Italy who lives in the Portuguese capital.

For the confrontation crisis of housing costs and rising property prices, the government on Thursday approved a plan aimed at increasing the number of available homes in a country that has about 730,000 empty or dilapidated homes.

One of the key measures of the government’s plan is to abolish the grant program “golden visa”, of residence permits granted to wealthy foreign investors. The aim of ending this program is to limit speculation in the real estate sector.

It is also provided the ban on issuing new permits for real estate for short-term rental on the Airbnb platform. However, some argue that these measures are not enough to lower prices in the near term.

The government’s plan also includes tax advantages for owners who will put up seasonal rents on seasonal rentals, more favorable taxation in the rental market, to make available apartments that have been empty for more than two years in major cities.

At the same time, the socialist government is taking measures to help families cope with rising rents and monthly mortgage payments.

“There is a huge housing crisis today,” she said Rita Silva, from the housing rights organization Habita, participating in the Lisbon demonstration. “This is a social emergency, he said. The government should prioritize social housing, which would “offer rents according to family income”, he said, joining many others criticizing the government’s plan to tackle the situation.