'The impact of Europe's housing crisis on low-paid Portugal'

'157%. From 2015 to 2021, rents rose 112%, according to Eurostat, the European Union's statistical agency. Rising property values are only part of the problem, however. Portugal is one of the poorest countries in Western Europe and has long attracted investment amid low wages. Only just over half of Portuguese workers earned less than 1,000 euros ($1,054) a month last year, according to the labor ministry. Within the European Union, a surge in inflation, especially rising food and energy prices, as well as the ongoing economic and labor effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, has only complicated the housing problem in the 27-member bloc. More than 82 million households in the EU are struggling to pay their rent, with 17% of people living''in overcrowded units, and just over 10 percent spend more than 40 percent of their income on rent, the bloc reports.

The hardest hit by unequal access to decent, affordable housing are young people, families with children, the elderly, the disabled and migrants. In Portugal, the problem is exacerbated by tourism, whose strong pre-pandemic growth is making a comeback, and by the influx of foreign investors who find relatively low real estate prices in Lisbon and raise prices, pushing locals out of their neighborhoods. After a record 25 million foreign tourists arrived in Portugal in 2019, last year's tourist numbers totaled 15.3 million, a 158% increase after a year of pandemic restrictions. Analysts expect 33% growth this''year.

For some people, this long-awaited success of the state in attracting foreign tourists has become something of an outrage. Rosa Santos, a 59-year-old resident of Lisbon near the 14th-century St. George Castle, says most of the houses in her neighborhood are occupied by short-term rentals for foreign tourists. Her neighborhood is no longer a neighborhood," Santos says. - "It's no longer a neighborhood, but a fun park." Activists are fighting this trend that is robbing the capital city of its charm. Santos is part of a growing movement that is demanding a referendum to end short-term rentals in Lisbon. They gather every weekend in a neighborhood in the city to collect signatures in support of their goal. To start the referendum process they need''to collect at least 5,000 signatures from the city council.

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On a recent rainy day, police helped municipal workers demolish several illegal, unfinished dwellings on the outskirts of Lisbon without electricity or water. Families forced to live in them for lack of funds begged for the demolition to stop. Nearby, in the low-income neighborhood of Camarate, near Lisbon's airport, missionary Jose Manuel is helping families in need, some of whom can't afford to pay for even a room, let alone a house, and are forced to leave the city as a result. "We are already talking about a room in Camarata for 400 euros, a house for 600 or 700 euros," he says. - "Those who earn the minimum wage can't afford to buy a house." Housing rights organizations support''people fighting for a roof over their heads. One of them, Habita, is pressing the authorities to stop the development of luxury projects aimed at wealthy foreigners. Rita Silva, a Habita spokeswoman, says the government should also impose stricter rent controls and 'stop evictions if there are no alternative housing options'. Portuguese President António Costa says cities that lose their residents lose their "justification" and become a "Disneyland" for tourists. Among the measures his government hopes to take for the market is to force owners of unused properties to rent them out, giving priority to young renters under 35, large families or families whose income has fallen by more than 20%;''Limiting the indexation of new leases to 2% over the previous contract; ending the golden visa program that grants residency permits to wealthy foreign investors buying property in Portugal; banning new licenses, except in rural areas, for short-term rentals through tourist accommodation sites; and reallocating commercial properties to housing. The proposed measures are causing counter-evidence: some see them as crude and misguided, others say they lack detail on how they will work. And some are angry at them. Hugo Ferreira Santos of the Portuguese association of real estate developers and investors says foreign investment has stopped as people wait to see what changes''s legislation will become the famous "golden visa" visa. "What I've heard from international investors is that Portugal is not a reliable country," he says. - "It's a country that changes the rules of the game halfway through and a country where foreign capital is not welcome." Also irritating are measures to restrict investment in short-term rental apartments for tourists. "What happens is that people have left their lives, set up their businesses, created jobs and then one day everything collapses with no prospects," said Eduardo Miranda, head of a Portuguese association representing them. Some measures will require parliamentary approval, and others may be sent to the Constitutional Court for examination.