Rental market in Portugal:

chronicle of an announced death

Abstract

In Portugal and Lisbon, due to the inability of the rental market to respond to the constant mismatch between supply and demand over the decades, this has become increasingly residual and dysfunctional, compared to the homeownership market. Through the analysis of several laws and legislative changes in the last 100 years, as well as fieldwork consisting of participant observation and the author's three years of experience as a stakeholder in the sector, this work aims to review rental policies in Portugal and the impacts they had on the reproduction of various fragilities in the rental market. The article concludes with some policy recommendations that argue that government action is decisive in the formulation of housing and rental policies, creating a legal and regulatory framework that conveys credibility, stability and security to contractual forms between supply and demand and an effective right to housing by affordable lease.