For all the fine words and pre-election pledges, the truth is that the 26,000 new homes envisaged for 2026, first by PS Socialists – and then by Portugal’s incoming social democrat AD alliance – will not be ready on time.
With luck, the country will see a little over half that number of properties completed to take people and families desperate for accessible housing. That leaves all the more that have to be constructed by 2030 (the limit by which the current government has pledged 59,000 new homes).
In the meantime, thousands of primarily young people (arguably Portugal’s future) took to the streets of Lisbon and Porto last weekend, clamouring for so much more to be done to help secure roofs over people’s heads.
“The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) recently considered Portugal to be the country with the least access to housing, so it is very important that we are here on the streets to show that the options put forward by the government – PS, PSD and CDS – are not yet resolving the housing crisis,” 24-year-old protestor Diogo Machado told Lusa.
“House prices rose in the first quarter of the year, more than they had in many years (…) Housing only becomes accessible when prices decrease,” he said.
Leonor Heitor, 21, put her generation’s dilemma into brutal perspective: “How is it sustainable to live in a country where rents equal the minimum wage?” she quizzed.
Political decision-makers “should implement measures to regulate local accommodation (the high-priced short-term lets that have transformed vast swathes of the country); urban planners should also address the broader urban plan by renovating “so many empty buildings” held by public authorities – which could house “so many people seeking affordable places to live”, she railed.
With protesters chanting well-worn slogans, this was not a demonstration that could be ‘swept away’ as being powered by irritating activists: it is the awful status quo these days throughout Europe, and in the United Kingdom: young people are ‘stuck’ – unable to afford independence, in spite of holding down perfectly acceptable jobs.
“When an entire generation lacks housing rights, we compromise the future”, former independent MP Helena Roseta was among the crowds in Lisbon. “The government must get this into its head; it needs to solve this problem…”
“This is a fight that will continue”, vowed André Escoval, one of the spokespeople for organisers of the event – the Casa para Viver platform and the Porta a Porta movement. “The hundreds of people who participated in this demonstration have sent a clear message to the government that they will return to the streets after the summer. The 2026 State Budget must include an unequivocal commitment to housing” – including rent regulation and longer contract terms.
And, refreshingly, that looks like it may well be one of the government’s intentions.
Prime Minister Luís Montenegro stood in parliament last week insisting on the government’s “clear priority” for “ensuring quality housing for all”.
AD’s new housing policy – going beyond its original ambitions outlined in the Construir Portugal programme – will promote the mobilisation of “all market players in order to overcome the housing crisis and halt the escalation of prices”.
Focus will be on creating “a decisive increase in supply – public, private and cooperative – simplifying licences and restoring confidence to the rental market”, he said.
The main measures are outlined on the government’s official website. One of them hints at what may lie behind the description “mobilisation of all market players”: the clause refers to “Modernisation of the construction sector, with a focus on innovation, industrialisation and new technologies (such as BIM)”.
BIM, standing for Building Information Modelling, and a futuristic leap in the construction industry, is favoured particularly by China, which is ‘pivoting overseas’ with its construction know-how to offset the property slump back home.
Why is this relevant to Portugal? Well, today (Thursday) officials representing authorities in China and Hong Kong are in Lisbon to “promote the use of technology in public housing construction in Portugal”.
According to a statement, the event “Unveiling New Horizons: Affordable Housing and Opportunities in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area” will be taking place in the context of a business lunch.
Beijing project Commissioner Maisie Chan Kit Ling will be giving a speech on “the enormous business opportunities” waiting for Portuguese entrepreneurs, wrote Lusa earlier this week.
The event sets out to “share Hong Kong’s experiences in increasing the quantity, speed, efficiency and quality of public housing construction through the adoption of various innovative rapid construction and robotic technologies”. (Yes, robots could be the answer to Portugal’s ‘shortage of available construction workers!)
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Housing, Winnie Ho Wing Yin, will also be attending this presentation along with more than 20 representatives from the construction sector in both Hong Kong and China.
The company representatives particularly will discuss technologies such as prefabricated modules, the integration of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing installations, and the use of robots in civil construction.
The event could serve “to strengthen links between the sectors in Hong Kong and Portugal and explore business opportunities,” says the statement.
Maisie Chan and Winnie Ho will also participate in the 17th International Forum on Urbanism, which is taking place this week at the renovated Portugal Pavilion – now managed by the University of Lisbon.
As Lusa points out, this critical Chinese know-how could be the gamechanger for busting through traditional Portuguese obstacles (bureaucracy/supply delays/worker shortages) and delivering the public housing that this country so badly needs to move sustainably forwards.
Mr Montenegro has repeatedly stressed that ways need to be found around “administrative and bureaucratic obstacles”. This ‘thinking outside the proverbial box’ could be one of them.
