The same conclusion can be drawn from data from the Tax Authority, which points to an average growth in the housing stock in Portugal of just 0.29% per year between 2017 and 2022. According to a report by INE, this is very little, considering that in this period the population residing in Portugal over 15 years of age grew at an average rate of 0.41%, according to data from INE.

The lack of homes is particularly observed in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, where both property prices and rents have soared in recent years. However, it is in the interior municipalities that the decline in the housing stock is most felt.

According to ECO calculations based on data from the Tax Authority, there are 51 municipalities (mostly located in the interior of the country) that in the last six years have seen a contraction in their housing stock, due to a volume of construction of new houses and of rehabilitation to a much lower degree than the number of houses demolished.

The municipalities of Trancoso and Aguiar da Beira, both in the Guarda district, are the most evident cases of this reality, as they showed a contraction of 1.27% and 1.23% in their housing stock between 2017 and 2022. In absolute numbers, these losses resulted in the “disappearance” of 589 houses in Trancoso and 349 houses in Aguiar da Beira.

In the opposite corner are the municipalities of Vizela, in the district of Braga, and Porto, which in the last six years have seen an average growth in their housing stock of 1.21% and 1.1% per year, respectively. This is an increase of 4.2 times and 3.8 times above the national average.