Commenatary by Ana Drago (CES) and Nuno Serra (CES)


Synopsis
This booklet presents the main results of a survey of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area's tenant population, carried out in 2023. The survey identifies a tripartite rental market. There is the liberalised market segment, aimed mainly at the working-age population, which faces a high housing cost burden and enormous contractual instability, resulting from the short duration of rental contracts and the unregulated evolution of rental values.

The protected market, which refers to pre-1990 contracts, in turn provides a higher level of contractual protection, but concentrates poor housing conditions and is home to a tenant population without the financial capacity to move to the liberalised market. Finally, the informal market, which represents the most unstable housing conditions, is home to a population that accumulates precarious labour, housing and citizenship conditions. All in all, a picture emerges of enormous housing vulnerability affecting a significant part of the tenant population, albeit with different expressions in each market segment.

This vulnerability not only deepens the gap between renter and owner households in terms of access, security and housing satisfaction, but also intensifies inequalities between the various segments. In conclusion, housing is increasingly becoming a factor in the reproduction of social inequalities, influenced by determinants such as social class, age, gender, nationality or ethnicity.

Access the booklet > https://www.ces.uc.pt/observatorios/crisalt/?id=6522&pag=9331