Too much demand, too little supply. There are fewer and fewer homes available for rent in Lisbon, a situation that is leading potential tenants to offer 12 months of rent to secure a home. "The market is dry," says António Frias Marques, president of the National Association of Owners (Associação Nacional de Proprietários or ANP).
It is mainly foreign citizens, and most of them Brazilian, who make this type of offer, according to the newspaper i. "They are people who do not have to contribute to the IRS (Imposto sobre o Rendimento das Pessoas Singulares, a personal income tax in Portugal), which for many owners serves as a guarantee to be able to assess the financial capacity of the potential tenant. As they have money in their wallet, they choose to pay the rent for an entire year all at once because that way they can guarantee they have the property," said a real estate agent in this publication. "If not, they run the risk of not being able to rent because the competition for housing is too big," they added.
"Every man for himself" seems to be the new motto of the rental market. More and more people are playing this card when faced with the possibility of not being able to keep a property. "This is a crime of speculation because the owners can only receive up to five advances on the rent: three relating to the rent and two more for the deposit," said António Frias Marques. "The market is dry," he said.
For Menezes Leitão, president of the Lisbon Homeowners Association (Asociación Lisbonense de Propietarios or ALP), we are witnessing a "great downturn" in the leasing market, which is going to lead to new price increases, a problem "with no solution in sight", since there aren’t enough houses for rent.
From the original Portuguese article: Crise no arrendamento. Há quem ofereça 12 meses de renda para ficar com a casa
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