- 6 hours ago
Lisbon is considered a dream city; but when it comes to its housing market, many people who live and work here are fighting to survive.
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00:07Lisbon. Beaches, sunshine, safety, good quality of life.
00:11For many, Portugal's Atlantic capital is a dream city.
00:15But for the people who live and work here, it's exactly that which has become the problem.
00:20Many can no longer find a place to live.
00:23I was pushed out of the neighborhood I lived in, and now I feel pushed out of Lisbon itself.
00:31Some can no longer afford even a single room and end up here, in this illegal settlement, despite having a
00:37job.
00:38I want a home that I can pay for with my salary. That's all. The rest I can take care
00:44of myself.
00:46At the same time, the luxury end of the property market is booming.
00:50Lisbon is not alone. Many major cities around the world are facing the same crisis.
00:54Experts say this is more than just a housing issue.
00:58The lack of a political response to the housing crisis is undermining trust.
01:03When that system fails to respond, democracy itself begins to erode.
01:09But there is resistance. We want to know just how serious is the situation.
01:15And who does this city still belong to?
01:17The also care of representations of references.
01:19Thanks for arist Studers and darliners.
01:20We love our jobs!
01:20The more jobs!
01:21The more jobs!
01:21The more jobs!
01:21The better, he needs to help us!
01:23Roberto, hear it!
01:23We are our natives!
01:25We are the people!
01:29We come to the more jobs!
01:32Roberto, hear it!
01:39George is looking for an apartment.
01:41After his rent went up by almost 20%, he had to leave his previous home.
01:46For the last six months, he has been searching listings every day.
01:50But finding anything affordable is difficult.
01:55I was practically pushed out of the neighborhood where I used to live.
01:59And now I feel pushed out of Lisbon itself.
02:01As if the city were rejecting me, telling me to go away.
02:06And I only ended up in this house by chance.
02:10Because the friends living here happened to have a spare room.
02:19It is only a temporary solution.
02:22What the 43-year-old really wants is a place of his own.
02:26George came to Portugal from Brazil in 2017.
02:28He works full-time in marketing and earns 2,000 euros net a month.
02:33About a third more than the average worker in Portugal.
02:41Here, a single room costs between 700 and 800 euros.
02:47When I arrived in Portugal, that was the price of an entire apartment.
02:52Now it's the price of just one room.
02:56Right now, many people in Lisbon are in the same situation as George.
03:01Since 2020, rents have risen by 42%.
03:04One reason, this picturesque city has become a tourist hotspot.
03:09In 2025 alone, around 7 million people visited.
03:13In neighborhoods like Alfama, once home to working-class families,
03:17many apartments are now being offered as short-term holiday rentals, forcing residents out.
03:21The influx of digital nomads has made the situation even worse.
03:26Experts recommend spending no more than 30% of your income on rent.
03:31In reality, the average figure is now around 40% in Berlin, 75% in London and in Lisbon, 116%.
03:43But there's growing resistance. Today, one of the biggest demonstrations in years is planned in central Lisbon.
03:51Thousands are expected to attend.
03:52Housing prices are very high. We cannot afford to buy a rent an apartment at the moment.
03:59I receive a pension that, by Portuguese standards, is not very much.
04:03Around 1,000 euros. But I have to pay 550 euros in rent.
04:07It's complicated, for sure. I don't want to live in my parents' house until I'm 50.
04:19Georges is here too. For some time now, he's been active with Porta à Porta,
04:23an organization founded in 2023 to fight for the right to housing.
04:29That is our goal, to pressure the government, to make them act,
04:33and to make them see housing for what it is, a national emergency.
04:37We believe that together, we can bring about change.
04:41We can turn what is treated today as a market back into what it should be, a right.
04:46The right to have a place to live.
04:57So welcome to this exquisite loft in the neighborhood of Alcântara, in Lisbon.
05:06This is one of my favorite properties because it's incredibly unique.
05:10There isn't really anything like it on the market right now.
05:15This luxury apartment on sale for 1.4 million euros is one of the listings of the Anne Breitman Group.
05:22The American entrepreneur has built up a successful real estate company in recent years,
05:27now employing more than two dozen people.
05:30Our specialty, the very top end of the market.
05:33I would move in here in a second and I would live here for three or four years
05:39and make a nice profit if I wanted to sell it.
05:43So I think this is really an exceptional buy.
05:48Anne Breitman's luxury properties are sold to buyers from all over the world,
05:52including Northern Europe, the United States and Brazil.
05:55She knows international demand has transformed the market.
05:59But in her view, the reasons for the housing crisis lie elsewhere.
06:05This really isn't a problem of expats coming into the country.
06:10This is really an issue of the government working on affordable housing,
06:17making the process much easier and much shorter
06:21and cutting some of the bureaucracy and red tape that the developers run into.
06:28In fact, Portugal is amongst the lowest in Europe when it comes to social housing provision,
06:33with it making up just around 2% of the housing stock.
06:37Countries like the Netherlands, Austria and France have significantly more.
06:41That also has to do with the country's history.
06:44After World War II, rents in Lisbon were frozen for decades.
06:48That meant there was little incentive and little money to maintain buildings properly.
06:53Then, in 2012, the government liberalised the housing market.
06:56Permanent rental contracts were largely abolished
06:59and Portugal actively attracted foreign investors who bought property in the country.
07:05For Lisbon city councillor Vasco Moreira-Rato, the housing crisis is real.
07:11And there are no easy solutions.
07:13But he says foreign investment also brought benefits.
07:16Not so many years ago, downtown Lisbon was full of buildings in very poor condition,
07:22often empty or occupied by people who had no means to renovate them.
07:27Today, downtown Lisbon is a vibrant part of the city, completely transformed and rehabilitated.
07:33So at that time, Lisbon needed that investment.
07:35At that time, Lisbon needed that investment.
07:51Most people here are not convinced that the government is doing enough to tackle the housing crisis.
07:57Today, thousands have gathered for the demonstration.
08:00George is among them.
08:04Fight! Fight!
08:06So many empty houses!
08:08Fight! Fight!
08:10So many empty houses!
08:13This huge turnout shows we're on the right track.
08:16And that we're not alone.
08:19It gives me hope to see that this fight is growing.
08:22That more and more people are coming together.
08:24And taking to the streets to demand a basic right.
08:28Housing!
08:34In the crowd, we meet Maria.
08:37She will later show us herself why she is here today.
08:42It is so important to fight for the right to housing.
08:46We are here so that the whole world knows we exist.
08:49So people can see us.
08:54She invites us into her home, so we can see what housing in Lisbon now looks like for some people
09:00here.
09:02Maria lives in Talude, a tin-shake settlement just outside Lisbon.
09:07A few hundred people live here, some without running water, without sewage, without electricity.
09:16Everybody who lives here is working.
09:18I work, I have children, they are students.
09:22But my salary does not even come close to covering a home for me and my daughters.
09:26Even just a two-bedroom apartment.
09:28On the minimum wage, it's impossible.
09:32Maria came from São Tomé five years ago to give her daughters a better future.
09:37She found work as a cleaner and has earned Portugal's minimum wage ever since.
09:41Around 800 euros net a month.
09:44But with that, she could not find an apartment.
09:48I don't want favours.
09:51I want to work for what I have.
09:54What I want is simple.
09:56A home I can afford with my salary.
09:59That is all.
10:00In Portugal, unfortunately, that is something I cannot have.
10:04Once I have a home, everything else I can achieve through my own hard work.
10:13Instead of ending up on the street, she built herself an illegal shack out of metal.
10:18But like all the residents, she is in constant conflict with the city.
10:22Her home was recently demolished.
10:24She built it again, because she cannot afford any alternative.
10:30When they destroy our homes, they destroy our lives.
10:34Then we have to start all over again.
10:39But how could politics make housing affordable again?
10:42We meet Helena Rosetta, one of the co-authors of Portugal's constitution from 1976.
10:48She helped build in a key principle the right to housing.
10:53The housing toolbox has only four real instruments.
10:56You build public housing, which takes time.
11:02You use taxes and fiscal incentives.
11:05You subsidize rents or land.
11:08Or you regulate an unbalanced market through law.
11:13The former MP has spent years studying Portugal's housing market.
11:18She knows what is at stake if things continue like this.
11:24The lack of a political response to the housing crisis is undermining trust.
11:29When that system fails to respond to one of the most basic problems people face,
11:33democracy itself begins to erode.
11:37We meet George again.
11:39Today is moving day for him.
11:41But not into a place of his own.
11:43He is just bringing the rest of his belongings to his friend's apartment.
11:46For now, that is where he will stay until he finds something affordable.
11:52I hope the future brings real change.
11:54Change that helps not just me, but everyone living through this.
11:58Not only in Lisbon, but around the world.
12:01Because, as we see here, people are being denied something fundamental.
12:06The right to a home.
12:08The right to a roof over their heads.
12:10The right to live with dignity.
12:13In Lisbon, this is no longer just about how expensive housing has become.
12:18It is about whether this city can still be a home for the people who live and work here.
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