Position on the European Commission Proposal for a Council Recommendation on Portugal (COM(2026) 222 final)

Housing Policy Challenges and Priorities

No âmbito do pacote de primavera do Semestre Europeu de 2026, apresentado pela Comissão Europeia no dia 3 de junho de 2026, a Rede H foi convidada pela Representação da Comissão Europeia em Portugal a participar numa sessão de informação e troca de impressões, contribuindo sobre temas de Habitação.

Participaram nesta sessão Luís Mendes e Sara Silva Lopes em representação da Rede H, e este Parecer tenta apresentar um resumo sobre os temas abordados e a perspetiva da Rede H para abordar o desafio da crise habitacional.

Luís Mendes, Sara Silva Lopes, Simone Tulumello

The Rede H, the Portuguese Network of Housing Studies, which joins around 180 academics working on housing issues, considers that the European Commission's assessment confirms the existence of a structural housing crisis in Portugal. Addressing this challenge requires an integrated strategy that combines short-, medium-, and long-term measures.

First, it is essential to promote a more efficient use of the existing housing stock by mobilising vacant and underused dwellings and adopting fiscal mechanisms that encourage their placement on the permanent and affordable housing market. This should be complemented by measures to reduce bureaucratic barriers related to unresolved inheritance processes and vacant properties held by real estate investment funds, thereby addressing the growing financialization of housing. Furthermore, the State itself is one of the country's largest property owners and should lead by example by identifying and inventorying its vacant assets and incorporating them into affordable and social housing programmes.

Second, it is crucial to significantly expand the supply of public, social, and affordable housing, bringing Portugal closer to European averages. This effort should be based on sustained public investment, the effective use of European funds, and the involvement of the third sector and the social economy, including housing cooperatives and other non-profit and non-speculative housing models.

The Rede H also advocates strengthening support for the most vulnerable households through better-targeted housing subsidies and specific measures aimed at young people, older adults, single-parent families, migrants, Roma communities, and essential workers living in areas under severe housing pressure.

Combating housing exclusion and the growing number of people experiencing homelessness must remain a priority, through investment in prevention strategies and the expansion of Housing First programmes. The number of people known to be experiencing homelessness in Portugal has more than doubled since 2018, exceeding 14,000 individuals in 2024 – as these are estimates, it should be noted that real numbers are certainly larger. Between 2018 and 2024, homelessness known to public authorities increased by approximately 140%. This trend demonstrates that the housing crisis is no longer affecting only traditionally vulnerable groups; it has acquired a structural dimension in which housing insecurity increasingly affects lower-middle- and middle-income households as well. This reality requires integrated responses across housing, social protection, health, and employment policies.

Third, the fast pace of growth of housing prices during the last decade has not only exceeded the growth of available income, but it has made housing unaffordable for the vast majority of people working and living in Portugal – in metropolitan areas, market housing is unaffordable for at least the lowest 4 quintiles of the income distribution. Dozens of measures implemented during the last decade in at least 4 “housing packages” by governments of all orientations have fundamentally failed in halting or reversing the growing unaffordability – one of the main reasons being that regulatory efforts have never been seriously launched. For these reasons, Portugal urgently needs strong regulation of the housing market, with measures oriented toward both demand (especially in regard to external demand and financialised investment) and supply (especially in the rental sector, which is one of the most liberalised of the European region).

Finally, housing governance must be strengthened by improving coordination between central and local government, integrating housing policy with mobility and spatial planning, and implementing robust data collection and evaluation systems capable of monitoring needs, outcomes, and policy impacts. Importantly, it should also include the civil society in a meaningful participatory process, ensuring that residents and community groups are actively involved in decision-making, agenda-setting, and the co-design of housing solutions.

As an academic network, we wish to emphasise this point: without adequate data sharing and transparency from public authorities, it becomes difficult to fulfil our role in analysing and interpreting housing trends and in providing the scientific and technical expertise needed to support evidence-based decision-making by both central and local government.

The Rede H believes that access to adequate housing should be recognised as a fundamental right and treated as a strategic priority for the country's social, territorial, and economic cohesion.