More than a third of Portuguese spend more than 30% of their income on home.

More than a third (36.4%) of respondents in a study by the Portuguese Public Observatory report spending more than 30% of their household income on rent or housing costs.

The study was conducted between July and November 2023 and aimed to assess Portuguese people’s perceptions of current issues, including the housing crisis.

Comparing these results with those obtained in July 2023, last November saw a 4.5 percentage point (pp) decline for respondents whose households spend between 31 and 50% of their income on rent or housing costs .

On the other hand, there was a slight increase in both the number of participants who said they allocate 0% of their income and those who said they allocated between 11 and 20% of their household income to this type of expense (+1.3 p.p. .). and +3.4 p.p. respectively).

The analysis by the Observatory of the Portuguese Society of Catholics of Lisbon also states that 16.2% of respondents indicated that they do not have any rental costs or mortgage payments.

“There is therefore a decrease in the level of effort of Portuguese households between July 2023 and November 2023, which can be explained by the various types of support established by the state, such as extraordinary income support, housing loan moratorium or temporary interest subsidies,” he highlights.

When asked whether home prices in the area where they live had increased over the past year, 95.4% thought they had, with 30.6% saying they had increased a lot and 64.8% saying they had increased a lot.

Just 0.1% of respondents believe prices have not increased, the study said, and also noted a 1.8 percentage point increase in November 2023 for those who believe prices in their locality have increased significantly over the past year.

The vast majority (91.1%) are concerned about the housing situation in Portugal, with 59.9% of respondents very concerned and 3.7% slightly or not at all concerned.

The findings of the study also indicate that 62.6% of respondents indicate that they live in their own home, 27.1% in a rented home and 10.3% are in another situation.

The sample included 1,000 respondents aged 20 to 75, which compared to the national proportions collected in the 2021 Census “is very similar, only with a higher proportion of those aged 50 to 59 and a smaller proportion of those aged aged 50 to 59 years.” the share of adults aged 60 to 69 years, taking into account the characteristics of data collection from online panel studies.”