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I am also Portuguese, have lived in 3 other European countries (all of them economically richer) and am still living abroad. If I compare the housing quality of

I am also Portuguese, have lived in 3 other European countries (all of them economically richer) and am still living abroad. If I compare the housing quality of all these countries I disagree Portugal is worse. I can easily find much worse flats listed abroad than in Portugal. I remember seeing unimaginable things like 20 sq m studio with no bathroom (just a plastic separating the rooms) in central London for the rental price of a 1 bed in Porto. Portuguese housing market, like potentially every other market, is smaller than the richer countries, but that doesn't mean house quality is "shit". I looked at idealista a few weeks ago and there are luxury houses being sold for 1M+ in the north (probably even more in the South), mostly obviously targeted to rich foreigners.

lagadu 6y ago
I didn't mention in my previous post: my standard comes from having lived in Oslo and Copenhagen, which admittedly is a high standard. But like I mentioned the high-end market is very small and you have few options for actually nice places. Also I added an edit mentioning roads: The amount of roads made of "paralelos" drives me up the wall (and poorly maintained tar roads outside the city).
- andresp 6y ago
  I have lived in Stockholm too. I was paying a fortune for a 27sq meter studio in Vasastan. Again, comparatively housing in Portugal is not shit by any measure. You just need to pay for it.
DoingIsLearning 6y ago
Another Portuguese (dozens of us!) I think a lot of these comments are from people looking for 1 bedroom apartment rentals in Lisbon/Porto. The reality is that most of the modern real estate in Portugal is bought not rented. We could go into the reasons mostly around Tenant protection laws and landlord taxation but there is little incentive to rent a brand new property. In practice most of Lisbon and Porto's rental market is pre-1950's or houses from the 1980's construction boom (i.e. low quality construction) with no renovations done. You can certainly find high-end 1 bedroom apartments but it is a small offering and mostly around financial centre areas.
- wooger 6y ago
  Airbnb is also a factor, and has for sure removed hundreds of beautiful 1 bedroom flats in central areas from the rental market. I'm not sure of the legal status of airBnB in Portugal, but it could be part of the problem.

lagadu 6y ago

I didn't mention in my previous post: my standard comes from having lived in Oslo and Copenhagen, which admittedly is a high standard. But like I mentioned the high-end market is very small and you have few options for actually nice places. Also I added an edit mentioning roads: The amount of roads made of "paralelos" drives me up the wall (and poorly maintained tar roads outside the city).

andresp 6y ago
I have lived in Stockholm too. I was paying a fortune for a 27sq meter studio in Vasastan. Again, comparatively housing in Portugal is not shit by any measure. You just need to pay for it.

DoingIsLearning 6y ago

Another Portuguese (dozens of us!) I think a lot of these comments are from people looking for 1 bedroom apartment rentals in Lisbon/Porto. The reality is that most of the modern real estate in Portugal is bought not rented. We could go into the reasons mostly around Tenant protection laws and landlord taxation but there is little incentive to rent a brand new property. In practice most of Lisbon and Porto's rental market is pre-1950's or houses from the 1980's construction boom (i.e. low quality construction) with no renovations done. You can certainly find high-end 1 bedroom apartments but it is a small offering and mostly around financial centre areas.

wooger 6y ago
Airbnb is also a factor, and has for sure removed hundreds of beautiful 1 bedroom flats in central areas from the rental market. I'm not sure of the legal status of airBnB in Portugal, but it could be part of the problem.