The Radical Reading Room

Thousands of people gathered outside Portugal’s Parliament in Lisbon on Tuesday, Oct. 27, to protest what they described as a deepening housing crisis. The mostly young demonstrators chanted, sang and beat drums while lawmakers inside the Republican Assembly debated the center-right government’s spending plans for next year. The gathering followed similar protests in central Lisbon in previous days, where police used batons and dogs to disperse demonstrators, according to the reports.

The reports said one-bedroom apartments in Lisbon commonly rent for 1,500 euros a month, compared with a minimum monthly wage of 920 euros before tax. A European Union report published at the end of last year found housing costs across Europe rose an average of 60.5% from 2015 to 2025. Portugal recorded a 147% increase over that period, the third largest after Hungary and Lithuania.

Portugal’s National Statistics Institute reported last week that housing prices rose by almost 20% between the first quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. Government figures cited in the reports show rental prices increased 68% since 2020. Protesters said the costs were making it harder for people to find homes and build lives in the country; the reports did not establish a single cause for the increases.

The demonstrations in recent weeks followed housing protests that began in neighboring Spain the previous month, the reports said. President António José Seguro has convened the Council of State, an advisory body, for a meeting next week to discuss the protests. The reports describe that meeting as planned, not as a decision or policy response already delivered. Tuesday’s gathering brought the housing dispute outside as lawmakers considered the government’s coming-year spending plans.