Data from the Living Conditions and Income Survey, released by the National Statistics Institute (INE), confirms the increasingly pronounced difficulty in buying or renting a house in Portugal, either due to the scarcity of available houses or the high prices. These conditions have affected families from all social strata, and especially young people, forcing many people to return to their parents' homes or share rooms with their children.
According to the data collected, in 2023, one in every five families lived in a property without enough rooms for the number of people in the household. Thus, 12.9% of the population lives in overcrowded housing, of which 21% corresponds to young people and 14% to adults.
The housing overcrowding rate increased last year by 3.5% compared to 2022, and is already the highest since 2010, which at that time stood at 14.6%.
The increase can be explained by the fact that many of these families were forced to sell their homes and, without finding an alternative they could afford, ended up in a situation of overcrowding. Other situations may be due to the forced removal of houses where landlords have not renewed contracts.
The fact is that, between 2022 and 2023, the number of people living in overcrowded conditions rose by 37%, a total of 370 thousand more people than in the previous year.
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Source: Supercasa