There Are 760,000 Rental Contracts in Force in Portugal

23 April 2017

According to the financial accounts, there are 762,217 rental contracts in force in the country. The data come from the electronic receipts and annual declarations of incomes submitted by landlords who submit receipts directly on the Finance Ministry’s website.

The Tax Authority revealed that there are 762,217 rental contracts for permanent housing in Portugal. This number includes contracts with electronic receipts (487,894) and contracts based on annual declarations of rental income (elderly landlords, or with very low incomes). In the latter case, tax authorities use the data to estimate the number of contracts for commerce and housing, and conclude that there are 646,389 contracts drawn up after 1990 (under the Urban Lease Regime) and 115,828 old contracts.

These statistics have been provided to Parliament and are contained in a report of the housing working group. José Mendes, Secretary of State for the Environment, referred to them at a recent hearing in the context of amendments to the Income Tax Law, but only mentioned the number of housing contracts with electronic receipts, which totaled 487,894, as reported by Jornal de Negócios. However, when compared with the data from the 2011 Census – which registered 794,465 contracts – this led to the conclusion that there had been a substantial drop in the number of rented properties.

The decline is smaller if we take the data in its entirety into account, but there is still no room to reach the conclusion that there has been significant growth in the market, as had been expected to occur after the rental reforms. On the contrary, says Romão Lavadinho, of AIL (Lisbon Tenant’s Association), referring to the paucity of rental offerings in large city centers like Lisbon and Porto. Menezes Leitão, of the ALP (Lisbon Landlord’s Association) agrees, and blames “successive steps backwards by the rental reforms” on the lack of interest in rental housing of the part of investors.

Original Story: Jornal de Negócios – Filomena Lança

Photo Credit: Miguel Baltazar

Translation: Richard Turner