Why is there a shortage of houses in Portugal if the population has decreased and the number of houses has increased?

Engineer and manager.

"It is not anticipated that the attractiveness of the country will change significantly in the near future, or that legislative measures will suddenly lead to an increase in construction or real estate supply on the market. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics, Portugal's population decreased by approximately87,000 people over10 years (2012-2022). By the same statistical data, the number of classic family residential buildings increased by approximately123,500 over the same period. Naturally, the question arises: if there are fewer people and more housing, why do we have a housing crisis and a shortage of housing? Well, there is no one answer to this question, but a combination of answers, each of which has its own significance."

If you look at what has happened to demand: the family structure has changed significantly - today we have many more "single" families (866,000 in 2011 and 1,027,000 in 2021, an increase of 161,000) and two-person families (105,000 more). So more housing is needed for the same people. Concentration of population in certain areas - there is traditional internal migration from inland areas to coastal and urban centers, on the other hand, emigration is concentrated in certain regions. Due to immigration and internal migration, the number of residents in the Lisbon District (Lisbon metropolitan area population grew by 2.5% between 2015 and 2022 - 70,000 people), Porto and Faro (grew by 4.5% - about 20,000 people).

We can conclude that the increase in demand in certain areas (Greater Lisbon, Algarve, Porto) due to the set of factors mentioned, together with the shortage of new residential units, has led to a constant increase in real estate values in recent years, concentrated in these areas. There does not seem to be a housing shortage crisis outside these major centers of attraction, although some neighboring areas are starting to experience price increases due to the capillarity effect. It is not foreseeable that the attractiveness of the country will change dramatically in the near future, or that legislative measures will suddenly lead to an increase in construction or the supply of real estate for sale or rent. Consequently, unfortunately, the situation will not change in the coming years.