There are currently more than 735,000 empty domestic properties all over Portugal. Overbuilding and the economic crisis intensified the situation, and several housing development projects, while totally finished and habitable, are still completely empty.
In the last 10 years, the number of unoccupied houses increased by 35% in Portugal, according to data from the 2011 Census, carried out by the INE (National Statistics Institute).
In the last decade, around a million new houses were built. The economic crisis has left around 125,000 of those uninhabited and without potential buyers. The critical situation in the housing market also accounts for unoccupied properties built over 50 years ago amounting to over 200,000.
Empty properties for rental have also increased, from 80,000 in 2001 to 110,000 in 2011, an increase of 37.6%.
Most of these homes (17.4%) are in Lisbon and neighbouring areas, while the Alentejo has the least number of unoccupied properties (10,8%). The national average for empty houses for rental is around 15%.
The survey also showed that most families pay rent of over €200 a month.
