Lisbon Debates Fate of 700 Squatted Council Homes

Lisbon’s municipal housing puzzle still has hundreds of pieces scattered on the table. City Hall admits that close to 700 city-owned apartments remain occupied without a legal lease, even after four years of methodical clean-up. Most of the families involved have now filed paperwork in the hope of staying put, but officials insist the process must be “rigorous yet humane.” For foreigners already battling Portugal’s tight rental market, the way the capital handles these cases matters: it affects overall supply, shapes future regulation, and may even influence how strictly short-term rentals or informal sublets are policed.

A housing jigsaw still missing 700 pieces

The current administration, in power since 2021, began by charting more than 1,000 illegal occupations across the city. Persistent fieldwork by Gebalis, the municipal landlord, has brought that tally down, yet around two-thirds of the original cases are still unresolved. Of the 700 households flagged this summer, 600 have already delivered identification, income data and length-of-stay proofs, hoping to qualify for a standard municipal lease. Deputy mayor Filipa Roseta likes to repeat that “homes in Lisbon can’t be inherited like family silver.” Many long-term occupants are children or grandchildren who stayed on after the registered tenant died, while others simply forced the locks during the pandemic. The city says it has no appetite for mass evictions; instead, it wants to convert as many cases as possible into regularised tenancy contracts, charging back-rent at subsidised rates.

A closer look at Lisbon’s municipal stock

Lisbon still owns roughly 23,000 social-rent dwellings, scattered from older neighbourhoods such as Mouraria to the large post-war estates of Marvila and Chelas. At the beginning of the current term, 2,000 units were empty and often uninhabitable. Since then, the city claims to have handed over 2,600 sets of keys after renovations, but 6,000 – 8,000 applicants remain on the official waiting list. Against that backdrop, the 127 illegal occupants who received formal leases this spring barely make a dent. The mismatch explains why some political parties—including Chega and PSD—pressed this month for swift removals to free apartments for people still queueing. Left-wing groups countered that pushing fragile families onto the streets would only shift the problem from public to private view.

Human vs. legal: City Hall’s tightrope in 2025

Under Deliberação 855/2022, only occupations that began before 1 October 2021 may be converted into legal tenancies. Newer squats—more than 400 fresh attempts since that date—are now being emptied within days, often with police support and electronic alarms on vacant flats. To qualify for regularisation, a family must score high enough for the Programa de Arrendamento Apoiado, settle an indemnity equal to one year’s subsidised rent for every year of illegal stay, and accept a payment plan if funds are tight. Even so, Roseta insists that each dossier is read “line by line,” because many occupants are migrant workers, single-parent households or pensioners with less than €500 a month. National lawmakers are also tightening the screws: Parliament approved in July legislation that raises criminal penalties for property invasions, a signal that tolerance is waning across Portugal.

What other European cities teach us

Urban planners watching Lisbon point to Glasgow’s community-led housing associations, which reclaimed 1,700 derelict flats and kept rents low, or to Albacete’s “housing-first” cabins for undocumented farm workers. Experts say three lessons stand out: rehabilitate empty stock fast, wrap social services around vulnerable tenants, and invite neighbourhood groups to co-manage estates. Those elements appear in Lisbon’s new “Morar Melhor” revamp programme, but critics argue funding is still modest compared with Glasgow’s multi-billion-pound push. Backbench MPs have floated the idea of vouchers that let low-income residents rent in the private market, similar to Berlin’s rent-support scheme, though the Finance Ministry has yet to sign off.

What this means for foreign residents and newcomers

Expat renters often discover too late that an apparently legitimate flat is, in fact, a municipal unit without a valid lease. Portuguese law holds the illegal occupant—and sometimes sub-tenants—liable once authorities intervene. To protect yourself, demand the landlord’s caderneta predial (property tax card) and a copy of the stipulated rental licence before paying deposits. The city’s tougher stance may also push more families into the private sector, squeezing supply further and nudging rents upward. On the upside, every regularised household opens one more path to lawful rental, and ongoing renovations promise a trickle of new affordable units later this year. For now, the golden rule remains: verify your contract, keep paperwork in order, and watch City Hall’s next moves—they will shape where, and at what price, you can live in Lisbon.