Rent rises 2024: government will move in with limit

Executive evaluating “balanced solution”

Portugal’s prime minister António Costa has assuaged fears of a dramatic rise in rents in January 2024.

He said yesterday that the government is evaluating the level of ceiling to be imposed next year (in line with the ceiling enforced this year) – without which tenants could face increases of nearly 7%.

Part of the process will involve talking to landlord and tenant associations, he told reporters, to “try to find a value that is as close as possible” to what households can afford in relation to the level indicated by law, linked to headline consumer price inflation.

“We’re going to listen to the sector’s associations, we’re going to consider what inflation is estimated to be for the year,” he said, declining to give any figures and arguing that the measure has to be a “balanced solution” that neither discourages landlords from renting out properties nor create situations of social disruption by bursting tenants’ budgets.

As Lusa recalls, rents could rise by 6.94% in 2024 – based on the August inflation figures recently released by the National Statistics Institute (INE) – if the government does not set a ceiling on increases, as it did this year.

Source material: LUSA