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Housing

Housing market trends, real estate prices, rental policies, and property news in Portugal.

A narrow cobbled street in Alfama, Lisbon, with tram rails curving between pastel and yellow residential facades, wrought-iron balconies and a hanging street lamp

Brussels Wants a Single European Test for When a City May Curb Short-Term Lets, and It Carves Your Own Home Out of It

The Affordable Housing Act, presented Wednesday, sets common criteria for housing-pressure zones and requires authorities to show short-term letting worsens supply or prices. A main residence is explicitly excluded.

The Portugal Brief 08 Sep 2026

Four-storey white social housing blocks at the Bairro de Santo Amaro in Lagos, with cars parked on a cobbled forecourt and trees along the edge under a blue sky

The European Investment Bank Will Put 1.5 Billion Euros Behind Portuguese Social Housing, and the First 500 Million Was Signed on Monday

The first phase targets 50,000 homes built or rehabilitated under 1.o Direito, the IHRU programme for people in undignified housing. The government says it covers the social responses left outside the Recovery and Resilience Plan.

The Portugal Brief 08 Sep 2026

A long mid-century residential block on Rua das Amoreiras in Lisbon, seen from the street, with balconies on every floor and cars parked below.

Portugal Scrapped Its Old Affordable-Rent Programme on 1 September, and the Replacement Still Cannot Be Used: the Rent Ceilings Were Due by 19 June and the IHRU Platform Is Not Live

Decreto-Lei 97/2026 offers landlords a full IRS and IRC exemption on accessible rents. It also gave the government 30 days to publish the portaria fixing the maximum rent by typology. That deadline was 19 June, and neither the order nor the platform exists.

The Portugal Brief 07 Sep 2026

A street corner in Porto: a blue and white azulejo-tiled building with iron balconies and shopfronts at street level, on a cobbled square.

Right of First Refusal in Portugal in 2026: A Practical Guide to the Direito de Preferência, the Thirty Days a Tenant Gets and the Eight Everyone Else Gets, the 15 Euro Notice That Clears the State, and the Six Months to Sue

A tenant of more than two years, a co-owner, a neighbouring farmer and the municipality can each take a Portuguese property off the buyer who agreed to it, at the price the buyer agreed. Here is who holds the right, in what order, and how long each one has.

The Portugal Brief 06 Sep 2026

The pink and pale stone facade of the former Escola Industrial Afonso Domingues in Marvila, Lisbon, its name cut into the stone above the entrance, behind railings under a grey sky

A Music Festival Offers Six People Living in a Disused Lisbon School Four Nights in a Holiday Rental

The Festival Iminente runs at the former Escola Industrial Afonso Domingues in Marvila from 17 to 20 September. Six people live there. The same six who were counted in July, which suggests none took the council's Housing First offer.

The Portugal Brief 04 Sep 2026

A wide daytime view over the dense apartment blocks and red-tiled roofs of Odivelas on the northern edge of Lisbon, rising up a green hillside towards transmitter masts on the ridge.

Buying a Repossessed Property at Auction in Portugal in 2026: A Practical Guide to the Two Separate Systems, the 85 and 70 Percent Opening Prices, the 15 Days to Pay, and the Charges That Vanish

Judicial sales open at 85 percent of a base that is the higher of tax value and market value. Tax sales open at 70 percent of the tax value and can fall to 20. The mortgage disappears; the preference rights and the missing habitation licence do not.

The Portugal Brief 04 Sep 2026

Residential apartment blocks on a hillside in the Lisbon metropolitan area, the kind of housing stock bought under the young-buyer state guarantee.

Novobanco and Montepio Exhausted Their Share of the Young-Buyer Housing Guarantee, and Wednesday's Despacho Tops It Up by 100 Million Euros

Despacho n.º 10855/2026 gives Montepio 60 million euros and Novobanco 40 million of extra portfolio guarantee after both hit their ceilings. The envelope reaches 2.4 billion euros, and the scheme still expires on 31 December.

The Portugal Brief 02 Sep 2026

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