Rising house prices in Portugal are forcing families to move to the suburbs.

In Lisbon, the average cost of real estate is 490 thousand euros (R$2.8 million). However, the current reality for many Portuguese is that living in cities and capital cities has become too expensive.

Filipa Gavea, a 33-year-old technology analyst, has to leave Lisbon to visit her friends. None of her close friends, with whom she used to share secrets, joys and sorrows, are around because of this increasingly common reality: the Portuguese are being forced to leave their native places.

In Lisbon, the capital of the country, the average real estate value is 490 thousand euros. However, the average annual income of families living in the city is 28,575 euros. This income''is just over half of how much Lisboans need to earn per year to qualify for a mortgage of €52,318.

'The difference is huge, which is why many people decide to move to live in cities in the suburbs of Lisbon or even in areas of the hinterland where it is still possible to buy decent housing,' says real estate consultant Lilia Emediato Freire.

The situation is so alarming that in half of the 20 capital cities of the Portuguese districts, the average annual income is insufficient for families to qualify for a loan to buy their own home. Besides Lisbon, this category includes Funchal, Viseu, Faro, Ponta Delgada, Braga, Porto, Coimbra, Aveiro and Leiria.

"Unfortunately, this is an irreversible process which''is likely to spread to other regions,' says José Xavier, managing partner of Cascais Mediação Imobiliária.

Xavier notes that real estate prices have been rising for several years, but they have risen sharply since the pandemic. "It's very difficult for the Portuguese. You can't forget that 80% of them earn an average of €1,200 a month to live on. The minimum wage in the country is now 705 euros, one of the lowest in Europe. It is impossible to fit mortgage payments into such an income," he emphasizes.