Lisbon, May 7, 2026 (Lusa) - Portugal has one of the world's largest housing stocks per capita, with 5.97 million homes for 4.1 million families, but 31% of homes serve as non-primary residences, a CBRE (a real estate consultancy) study says.
In the Lisbon and Porto metropolitan areas, this figure falls to 20% of existing homes.
The CBRE analysis points to "historical reasons" for the high number of homes that are not primary residences, highlighting "disincentives to rent" nationwide as a relevant factor.
"Because history shows that, when politically convenient, governments choose greater protection for tenants over owners, the latter give up a secure income and choose to have a second home or vacant properties for future use, integrating them into their real estate portfolios," the document says.
As a result, "only about 6% of the total stock is available for rent or sale, in contrast with 31% of the built stock which owners do not use as a primary residence."
According to the Oikos study – The Long Game for the Portuguese Residential Sector - the housing access crisis is “fuelled by a network of structural causes that go beyond a simple immediate increase in supply”.
The consultancy says rising immigration and more families – despite smaller sizes, as single people now make up 25% of households – have created "a mismatch between residential property supply and demand."
Therefore, existing homes "are generally larger than families currently need."
CBRE says the "growing gap between wages and prices” still conditions affordability.
In a city like Lisbon, with bank valuations of €2,523 per square metre in 2024, buyers "needed about 90 months of average salary to purchase just 50 square metres, a significant increase from the 61 months recorded in 2011."
Conflicting public housing policies from different governments attempting to address housing affordability have not changed this price trajectory, the consultancy says.
The fact that “most of the population owns the home where they live” mitigates the impact of house prices, which have increased 150% in the last decade.
Supply shortage is another cause of the housing crisis. In 2024, only 27,000 new homes were built, a figure well below the 113,000 units recorded in 2000.
To solve the problem, CBRE advocates reducing the state’s regulatory burden, allowing more scope for the private sector, more birth rate incentives, ending rent freezes, and "a stable regulatory and fiscal framework that restores owner confidence."
Alongside these measures, the consultancy insists on fighting bureaucracy to speed up supply, simplifying licencing, tax stability, and "increasing the speed of resolving legal disputes."
CT/LYT // AYLS
Lusa
