Portugal moves to speed evictions and end rent controls earlier

Portugal's minority centre-right government approved a housing-market overhaul that speeds evictions and brings forward the end of rent controls, betting that looser rules will pull empty homes back onto the market. Housing Minister Miguel Pinto Luz said the reform is meant to promote contractual freedom and bolster landlords’ confidence. The government says legal uncertainty has helped keep more than 250,000 homes vacant.

The package tightens rules for tenants and loosens protections on older leases. The threshold for eviction over rent arrears falls from three months to two, and landlords will be able to remove tenants who are repeatedly more than eight days late. The bill also clarifies that landlords can refuse the first automatic renewal of a lease. A rent-control measure limiting increases on new leases to 2% for properties rented out in the previous five years will expire at the end of 2026, three years earlier than planned. Higher-income tenants under 65 will also gradually lose protections on low-rent pre-1990 leases.

Portugal has around 1 million rented homes, but more than 23% of those leases are over 20 years old and 13% are over 40. The policy sits inside the wider Construir Portugal housing strategy, which aims to increase supply, expand public housing and support youth housing. The Recovery and Resilience Plan was intended to make 25,000 homes available, and the first-right access-to-housing assistance programme set a target of delivering 25,000 homes to families by June 2026.

Thousands protested housing costs in Porto on March 21, 2026. The OECD’s 2026 survey says the country still faces significant housing-affordability challenges despite recent structural reforms and stronger growth, and government homelessness strategy documents put the number of registered homeless people at about 13,000 at the end of 2023.

Tenant groups say the answer is not weaker protections but more homes. Antonio Machado of the Lisbon Tenants’ Association said the changes were not morally appropriate and would do little to solve the underlying shortage. The bill still needs parliamentary approval, and with no guaranteed majority, the government will need backing from either the Socialists or Chega.