MILANO – The front of social protests remains hot throughout Europe. After the strikes in United Kingdom which have paralyzed the country close to the Christmas holidays and the clashes in France for the pension reform, Portuguese citizens took to the streets en masse yesterday. Thousands gathered at Lisbon and in major cities against rising rents and house prices, with racing inflation making it increasingly difficult for many to make ends meet. “There’s a giant housing crisis,” she told Reuters Rita Silva Of inhabits, historic association that fights for the right to housing. “We are facing a social emergency,” she added.
From Great Britain to France and Germany, the return of the great protests in the streets
by our correspondents Anais Ginori, Antonello Guerrera, Tonia Mastrobuoni
The country, already grappling with difficult starting conditions considering that half of the country’s workers receive less than 1,000 euros a month, has faced a very strong increase in the cost of housing in recent years linked to the explosion of the short-term rental market. Always second Reuters, rental prices in Lisbon rose by 65% and house prices rose by 137%. “With my salary, which is higher than the average in the capital, I can’t afford an apartment because it’s too expensive,” Italian Nunzio Renzi, sales manager of a company operating in the country, explained to the news agency.
Portugal, the socialist government’s proposal against expensive housing. The vacant properties of private individuals are managed by the State
by Flavio Bini
The plan of the Portuguese government
An emergency situation that had prompted the socialist government in February to take the field with a drastic plan to counter the price race. A package of measures that included the stop to new licenses Airbnb and the “golden visa” mechanism, i.e. the permanent residence documents granted in recent years to non-European citizens for real estate investments in the country. The government then proposed itself as a real estate intermediary, taking over the management of the properties left vacant against an income from the owners in order to increase the housing supply at subsidized prices.