Most expensive rents charged in Greater Lisbon, Setúbal, Madeira, Algarve and Porto
The prices charged in new rental contracts “have not stopped increasing”. Latest data for the 4th quarter of 2023, shows the average price for the country as a whole has reached €7.71 per square metre – an increase of 11.6% in comparison to rents charged during the same period last year.
The news comes from INE statistics institute, writes tabloid Correio da Manhã, with the highest rents charged in Greater Lisbon, the Setúbal Peninsula, Madeira, the Algarve and Greater Porto. It makes a mockery of the government’s ‘rule’ that rents could only rise this year by 6.94% – but then critics always said the rule was impossible to enforce.
CM adds that compared to the 4th quarter of 2022, all new rental contracts registered increases in the 26 sub-regions NUTS III into which the country is divided. The only exception was the autonomous region of the Azores, where rents fell by 3.2%.
“The scarcity of (rental properties) and elevated demand has meant that the problem is really felt in the country’s urban areas, where rents are the highest – the average price per square metre hitting €12.54 in Greater Lisbon, €9.65 in Setúbal peninsula area, €9.65 in Madeira, €9.09 in the Algarve and €8.64 in Greater Porto”.
And the phenomenon has been fanned by the “chronic reduction in the construction of new homes to put on the market”.
CM refers to the reduction over the last decade as having been “gigantic”: 3,275 homes per quarter have been constructed compared to the 14,200 that were being built per quarter between the years of 2003-2012.
Solutions as a new government takes office with a full blown housing crisis smouldering? Direct action by the State, say experts consulted by CM: ‘controlled rents’; new measures to stimulate the market/ to encourage house construction/ renovation “in a way that reduces the rhythm of rental cost increases”.
Source material: Correio da Manhã
