In low-wage Portugal, Europe’s housing crisis bites deep

By HELENA ALVES and BARRY HATTON
Associated Press

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portugal’s center-left Socialist government is set to approve a package of measures to address the country’s housing crisis. A growing number of people are being priced out of the property market by rising rents, surging house prices and climbing mortgage rates. Affordable housing is a problem across the European Union. But the problem runs deep in Portugal, one of Western Europe’s poorest countries and has long pursued investment on the back of a low-wage economy. The problem has been magnified by tourism, a growing influx of foreign investors and visitors needing short-term rentals. Official figures show that just over half of Portuguese workers earned less than 1,000 euros a month last year.