Housing Rents in Lisbon Still 18% Lower than Before Pandemic

October 27, 2021 – Ana Custódio

Even so, housing rents in Lisbon increased by 2.5% during the third quarter of this year.

Despite recovering by 2.5% in the third quarter, housing rents in Lisbon are still 18% below the pre-pandemic period. The figure is the result of Confidencial Imobiliário’s Residential Rents Index. The analysis states that rents in the capital city during the third quarter of this year are 17.9% below pre-Covid levels.

The results were still a boost to the two previous quarters when rents in Lisbon were 19.9% below those in the period before the pandemic. It is the first time the slope of drop in the rents has narrowed compared to the pre-Covid period.

According to Confidencial Imobiliário’s Rents Index, the figures reflect the market’s recovery since the end of last year, culminating in a 2.5% quarterly increase in the third quarter, after a lull in the second quarter (-0.1%). The quarterly figure turned positive for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.

The year-on-year rate of change of rents in the capital city was -6.1% in the third quarter, almost 11 percentage points above the -18.0% seen at the start of the year, and a further slowdown in comparison to the -12.0% reported in the previous quarter.

Further north, in Porto, rents are also still 10.1% below the pre-pandemic level. Nationally, housing rents are down by 1.3%. In the third quarter, rents in Port fell slightly. In Portugal as a whole, rents are up both quarter-on-quarter (+1.4%) and year-on-year (+1.7%).

Confidencial Imobiliário’s Rents Index monitors the behaviour of the residential rental market, based on new rental contracts.

Translation: Richard D K Turner