Portugal’s rents are up 68% since 2020. On Saturday, tens of thousands marched in more than 30 towns to say they cannot live there any more
Tens of thousands of people marched in more than 30 Portuguese towns and cities on Saturday 14 November, the largest protest yet in a housing movement that has built for weeks. Over the past decade house prices have outrun incomes faster in Portugal than anywhere else in the European Union, and marchers say the government's answers, including a promise of 145,000 new homes, will come too late.
Three things to know
- Portugal's ratio of house prices to incomes rose 61% between 2015 and 2025, the biggest jump in the EU and almost double the Netherlands in second place, according to Eurostat.
- Parliament has just passed government changes that make rental contracts more flexible and speed up evictions, which campaigners say will leave tenants more exposed just as rents climb.
- The movement has spread from protest camps in the squares of Lisbon and Porto to towns from Braga to Faro, and it follows similar marches in Spain in October.
They came with drums, banners and a giant red carnation, the symbol of Portugal’s 1974 revolution. On Saturday 14 November, tens of thousands of people marched through Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra, Braga, Faro, Portimão and more than two dozen other towns and cities in what protesters called the largest demonstration yet against the cost of a home.
The slogan was blunt: they will not let anyone steal their right to housing. Marchers ranged from teenagers to retirees.
The marches were organised by Casa Para Viver (“A Home to Live In”), a platform of about 100 housing associations and grassroots groups, which has called on Prime Minister Luís Montenegro to meet them directly.
How bad is it?
The numbers explain the anger. The government’s own figures show rents have risen 68% since 2020. Property prices climbed almost 20% in the year to the first quarter of 2026, according to the National Statistics Institute.
Over a longer view, Eurostat figures show Portugal’s house price-to-income ratio rose 61% between 2015 and 2025, the largest increase in the EU. The Netherlands was next at 34%.
One marcher put it in household terms: on an income of €1,000 a month, paying €600 or €700 in rent makes ordinary life impossible. That is up to 70% of a pay packet gone before food, power or transport.
Who is driving prices up?
Portugal’s mild climate and long coastline have drawn foreign buyers, investment funds, digital nomads, remote workers and retirees. Tourism has surged, and many apartments in city centres have been turned into short-term holiday rentals, taking them off the market for locals.
What is the government doing?
The government has cut taxes on new construction, restricted short-term rentals and promised to build 145,000 homes, while acknowledging the effects will not be felt straight away.
But it has also pushed through rental law changes, now approved by parliament, that add flexibility to contracts and speed up evictions. Campaigners want them reversed, along with caps on rent rises, stronger protection against eviction, more affordable housing and tighter rules on tourist lets and empty homes.
President António José Seguro, whose role is largely ceremonial but carries political weight, convened the Council of State earlier this month to discuss the protests and met some protesters on Friday.
Why have the protests turned tense?
Activists have camped in central squares in Lisbon and Porto for weeks. Riot police with dogs have broken up some protests, drawing accusations of heavy-handed tactics, and police cleared a Lisbon protest camp in late October, arresting 25 people, and moved on another camp on 1 November. The camps keep coming back.
Why should anyone outside Portugal care?
Portugal is part of a wider pattern. The marches took their cue from Spain, where protests over housing and evictions began in October, and they come amid a season of cost-of-living protests across Europe, including weekly marches in France.
For Australians, the story will sound familiar: a country that sold itself to the world as a place to live, now asking whether its own young people can still afford to. Portugal’s answer, a mix of building targets, tax cuts and limits on holiday lets, is one other governments will be watching.
How we got here
The key moments that brought this story into focus. Open any moment for detail.
2015-2025Prices outrun pay
Portugal records the EU's biggest rise in house prices relative to incomes, 61%.
October 2026Spain marches
Protests over housing and evictions in Spain inspire Portuguese campaigners.
21 October 2026Camps return
Protesters return to camps in Lisbon after an earlier clearance.
25 October 202625 arrested
Police clear a Lisbon protest camp and arrest 25 people.
13 November 2026President meets protesters
President António José Seguro meets some protesters after convening the Council of State.
14 November 2026Largest march yet
Tens of thousands march in more than 30 towns and cities.
What happens next
Casa Para Viver is pressing Prime Minister Montenegro for a meeting and the reversal of the new rental laws. The protest camps in Lisbon and Porto remain a flashpoint with police. The government's 145,000-home building programme is its main long-term answer, but it has conceded the results will take time.
Sources
- VNN
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