The right to housing · Portugal
Homes to live in.
Not to profit from.
House prices have almost tripled in ten years. Rent eats up wages, evictions keep rising and more than 700,000 homes sit empty. None of this is inevitable. These are political choices, and choices can be changed.
Portuguese Constitution · Article 65
“Everyone shall possess the right for themselves and their family to an adequately sized dwelling that provides hygienic and comfortable conditions and preserves personal and family privacy.”
A right written into the Constitution in 1976, and still not honoured.
Housing for all Fair rents Decent wages Stop evictions Public housing Empty homes for those who need them Right to the city
Agenda
Coming up
-
Protest for a State Budget that delivers housing
Tuesday, 18:30 · Porto, Estação de metro da Trindade
Called by Casa Para Viver
-
Housing protest outside Parliament
Tuesday, 18:30 · Lisboa, Assembleia da República
-
National housing march in Viana do Castelo
Saturday, time TBC · Viana do Castelo, Praça da República
Called by Casa Para Viver
Citizens’ Legislative Initiative
The law is yours too
With 20,000 signatures, any group of citizens can put a bill before Parliament. The Acampada pela Habitação, the movement behind the tent camps, is drafting one, and wants to hear from you: what is the biggest housing problem, and what would you change in the law?
1
Have your say
Answer the survey and come to the open sessions around the country. A committee of 5 to 10 people drafts the bill from what people say.
2
Sign
20,000 voters sign the proposal.
3
To Parliament
The bill goes to the Assembleia da República to be debated and voted on. Parliament has admitted 14 citizens’ initiatives so far, and approved 8.
Both are in Portuguese. The survey is end-to-end encrypted and can be answered anonymously. Contact: ilc-habitacao@proton.me
What the tent camps are demanding
- Repeal the 2012 rent law
- Stop evictions
- Ban vulture funds from buying homes
- More public housing
- Bring empty buildings back into use as homes
- Caps on rents
One struggle
At home, at work, in the neighbourhood
Landlords on one side, bosses on the other: wages don’t stretch far enough and rent takes half. That’s why the fight for housing is also a fight for better wages, pensions and public services.
Tenants
At home
Get together with the rest of your building and join a tenants’ association. Together we can negotiate rents, push back on unfair increases and stop evictions.
Workers
At work
Wages have to keep up with the cost of living. Raise housing with your union and your workmates: it’s a workplace issue too.
Neighbours
In the neighbourhood
Local shops, schools, health centres: a neighbourhood with no residents dies. Stand with the people who live there against being pushed out by tourism and speculation.
Whoever is in government, housing is a right. And we’re going to win it.
The crisis in numbers
It’s not a bubble. It’s the system.
+180%
rise in house prices in Portugal from 2015 to 2025. EU average: +65%.
Eurostat
17,42 €/m²
median rent on new leases in Lisbon. For a 70 m² flat, that’s about €1,220 a month: more than a whole minimum wage.
INE, Q1 2026
723,000
empty homes in Portugal, 12% of all housing.
INE, 2021 Census
≈2%
of homes are public housing, one of the lowest shares in Europe.
ISCTE, 2025
Our demands
Six demands to win back the right to a home
01
Homes to live in, not to speculate with
Stop treating homes as financial assets: curb speculative buying, limit short-term lets where they push residents out and tax homes kept empty.
02
A large public housing stock
Build up public housing, now about 2% of homes, through new construction, renovation and putting empty public buildings to use.
03
Security: no eviction without somewhere to go
Long leases, no evictions without a decent place to go, and protection for families who fall behind through no fault of their own.
04
Rents that fit our wages
Regulate and bring down rents, with caps tied to local incomes, and protect families with mortgages from rising repayments.
05
Collective rights for tenants
Recognise tenants’ associations as negotiating partners on rents and conditions, the way unions are at work.
06
Decent wages, pensions and public services
No housing policy works on poverty wages. We need real rises in wages and pensions, and good schools, healthcare and public transport.
How to take part
Everything starts with getting organised
No one can fix this alone.
Want to start a group where you live, or sign your organisation up to these demands? Get in touch.
1
Get your building or street together
Talk to your neighbours, start a group and compare rents, leases and problems. Knowing what everyone pays is where your power starts.
2
Join a tenants’ association and a union
Being in both protects you from your landlord and your boss. Find an organisation.
3
Take to the streets
Join the demonstrations and local actions for the right to housing. Every one counts, in big cities and small towns alike.
4
Spread the word
Share the figures on this site, talk about your own situation, print posters and bring the debate to your school, workplace and residents’ association.
Not the first time
When residents and workers stood together, they won
1974
Occupations and residents’ committees
Right after the revolution of 25 April, thousands of families occupied empty homes and set up residents’ committees. Housing became one of the great struggles of the revolution.
1976
Housing in the Constitution
Article 65 of the Constitution gives everyone the right to adequate housing and makes the State responsible for delivering it.
2023
Back on the streets
The Casa Para Viver platform brings dozens of movements together and fills the streets of cities across the country.
2026
Tents in the square
In October, tent camps in Lisbon’s Rossio and Porto’s Praça D. João I bring housing to the heart of both cities. The police clear them, but the protests keep growing, and on 24 October thousands march in Lisbon and Porto.
Join both
To win, organise at home and at work
Tenants’ association
Learn your rights, get legal support and deal with your landlord together. Tenants who organise negotiate from a much stronger position.
Trade union
Advice, protection from retaliation and the collective strength to win wages that can actually pay for a home.
You’re not alone
Who’s fighting for housing
Movements, associations and collectives standing up for the right to a home in Portugal. Get to know them and join in.
Vida Justa
Movement born in Lisbon’s outer neighbourhoods, fighting for housing and against the rising cost of living.
vidajusta.org
CPV
Casa Para Viver
National platform of movements and collectives that calls the big housing demonstrations.
casaparaviver.pt
Porta a Porta: Casa para Todos
National housing movement with local groups in several cities.
portaaporta.pt
ILC pela Habitação
The tent camps’ citizens’ initiative to take a new housing law to Parliament.
ilc-habitacao.sites.deploybase.eu
Movimento Referendo pela Habitação
Non-partisan movement of Lisbon residents calling for a local referendum on short-term lets.
referendopelahabitacao.pt
Associação dos Inquilinos e Condóminos do Norte de Portugal
Northern Portugal. Free legal advice for members.
aicnp.pt
Housing is a right.
Let’s win it.
Join the people getting organised in buildings, neighbourhoods and workplaces all over Portugal.