Portugal is grappling with an unprecedented housing emergency, struggling with the most challenging housing accessibility within the OECD’s assessment of 30 nations.
As of Q3 2024, the nation’s housing affordability index soared to a record peak since 1995, reaching 157.7. Alarmingly, Portugal’s predicament surpasses the OECD norm by 36% and exceeds the eurozone’s average by 50%, as reported by Expresso.
The last ten years has revealed Portugal’s regrettable slide as the country with the most severely declining housing affordability. Skyrocketing property values, exceeding a 135.2% jump since 2014, overshadowing the meager 33% growth in average incomes, has resulted in an impossible gap and rendered homeownership a distant dream.
Escalating everyday expenses intensify the crisis. Setting aside accomodation costs, general inflation rose 21% in the last decade — a noteworthy difference from the surge in housing prices. Even with minimum wage increases of 69% since 2014, they fail to bridge the gap for prospective property purchasers.
With properties appreciating at fourfold the rate of average incomes, these circumstances generate critical limitations for middle-class individuals and young Portuguese citizens, further exacerbating the challenge of owning a home.
