Real Estate
Portugal Wants to Force Owners of Vacant Homes to Find Tenants
- Move is intended to ease tensions in a tight housing market
- Property owners’ group calls proposed measure unconstitutional
Residential buildings in the Alfama district of Lisbon.
Photographer: Goncalo Fonseca/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Portugal’s government wants to force owners of vacant homes across the country to make them available to long-term renters. The move, a bid to increase housing supply in a strained real estate market that’s unaffordable to many locals, has been attacked by property owners as a violation of the constitution.
The decision is part of a package of measures approved last week at a cabinet meeting. The “More Housing” plan also includes limits on rent increases, initiatives to speed up new building permits, a ban on new short-term rentals in cities and an end to the so-called golden visa program.