To be or not to be a tenant or a homeowner? That is the question. In Portugal, be a homeowner. In the rest of the world? The same, according to the results of this study by RentCafé. The data shows that just 25.2% of Portuguese people choose to rent. Even so, they’re not alone: “29 of 30 countries are majority homeowners,” the study states. Switzerland is the big exception as 56.6% of its population lives in a rented home.
The truth is that the price of houses doesn’t seem to intimidate the Portuguese, with more than half still preferring to buy. Interest rates are low and it’s easy to get a mortgage, so the choice is easy. The study “Renting Landscape in 30 Countries Around the World” reveals that between 2010 and 2015, the percentage of people renting in Portugal only increased 0.4%.
That said, it’s not only the Portuguese who prefer buying to renting. Rather, it is a very characteristically southern European thing. Take Spain, for example, where barely 21% of the population choose to rent, or Greece where it’s 24.8%, or Italy, with a percentage of 27.1%. Even going further north, there’s not much difference in the numbers. In Sweden and Norway, for example, the large majority of people choose to be homeowners, with the option of renting attracting about 30% of the population.
Switzerland is the only country in the study where people preferred to rent rather than buy, with a rental rate of over 50%. In second place is Hong Kong with 49%.