'Social emergency': Thousands protest in Portugal over housing crisis

LISBON, May 30 (Reuters) - Thousands of people took to the streets of Lisbon and other Portuguese cities on Saturday to protest against soaring rents and housing costs amid high inflation that is making life even harder.

"Today there is a huge housing crisis," Rita Silva of the housing group Habita said at the Lisbon protest. "This is a social emergency. "

Portugal is one of the poorest countries in Western Europe, according to government figures, with more than 50 percent of workers earning less than 1,000 euros ($1,084) a month last year. The monthly minimum wage is 760 euros ($826).

Rent rents in Lisbon, a popular tourist city, have risen 65 percent since 2015, while sale prices have increased 137 percent over the period, data from Confidencial Imobiliario, a real estate agency that collects data on the housing market, shows. Rents rose 37% last year, more than in Barcelona or Paris, according to Casafari, another real estate company.

Young people are having a particularly hard time.

The Socialist government last month announced a package of housing measures that, among other things, ended the controversial Golden Visa program and banned new licenses to rent apartments through Airbnb, but critics say this is not enough to bring down prices in the short term.

At a protest organized by the Live at Home movement and other groups, illustrator Diogo Guerra, 35, said he hears stories every day about people who have trouble securing housing. "People who ... work and end up homeless, people who are evicted because their house is turned into short-term accommodation (for tourists)," he said.

Low wages and high rents make Lisbon the third least affordable city to live in the world, according to a study by insurance brokers CIA Landlords. Portugal's current inflation rate of 8.2% only exacerbates the problem. "With my salary, which is higher than the average salary in Lisbon, I can't afford to rent an apartment because it's too expensive," said Nuncio Renzi, a sales representative from Italy who lives in the capital.