00:00 Meet Patricia Cassapa, a lawyer living in Lisbon who has been evicted three times in
00:07 eight years because of price hikes from landlords.
00:11 Now she rents a room in shared accommodation and like many, worries for the future.
00:16 I would say that young people my age have concerns about having children because we
00:25 don't know if tomorrow we have a house to live and how can we do this with children,
00:31 you know?
00:33 It's really a sad situation.
00:41 The housing crisis has brought anger and protest to the streets of Lisbon and beyond.
00:46 One measure brought in by the previous government was to ban so-called golden visa property
00:51 purchases.
00:52 Previously, having assets worth more than half a million dollars could guarantee residential
00:57 status for foreign citizens and valuable visa-free access to Europe's Schengen zone.
01:03 Now that's been stopped, for property purchases at least.
01:08 Companies like Henley and partners who specialise in migration visas disagree with the ban.
01:13 Let's say that 5,000 people came to live in Portugal via the golden visa programme in
01:17 the past five years.
01:21 This represents a tiny percentage of the people looking for houses in Lisbon and in the big
01:27 cities in Portugal, in Porto and the other big cities.
01:29 When you think about it, the kind of property that wealthy entrepreneurs and golden visa
01:34 applicants typically want are not necessarily the same as the ones that the average Portuguese
01:40 person wants.
01:43 Now with Portugal's home parliament, the future direction of government housing policy is
01:47 anyone's guess.
01:50 Governments like door-to-door believe successive governments have failed to provide low-cost
01:54 accommodation for those most in need.
01:59 The central government needs to develop a policy to increase public housing.
02:03 In Portugal we have just 2% public housing.
02:07 The European Union average is around 20%.
02:10 And there are countries like the Netherlands, for example, where the average is around 30%.
02:16 Millionaire migration is nothing new.
02:18 Countries like Lisbon compete to bring in high net worth individuals and foreign direct
02:23 investment while also catering to local needs.
02:27 It's a fine balancing act that has no easy solution.
02:30 Ken Brown, CGTN, Lisbon.
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