According to RE/MAX, renting a house can be more expensive than buying
Buying or renting a house? This is a decision that always depends on the situation of each person or household and the fact that in some areas of the country it is difficult to find housing for long-term rent.
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]lso the calculation of the costs associated with the acquisition is complex in itself, obeying changing factors over the years. RE/MAX, the leading real estate network in the national market, carried out a study that allows us to conclude that the acquisition of a property for housing may result in less financial effort for families than the lease option, which translates into monthly savings.
According to the latest data published by the National Statistics Institute (INE), leases corresponded to about 46% of sales, that is, in every 100 houses traded, only 32 were leased. This scenario has been notorious in recent years, with the acquisition of houses by the Portuguese at the expense of leasing, with the purchase option gaining land compared to the total number of properties and compared to the total number of leases.
In the set of residential properties available in March on the RE/MAX chain, 29,669 properties (93.8%) were intended for purchase (15,512 apartments and 14,157 homes) and 1,957 properties (6.2%) were for rental (1,790 apartments and 167 houses). Lisbon leads, representing 27.5% of the houses available for purchase at national level and also around two thirds of the total for rent, being the only district that presents a significant proportion of lease options, that is, in each seven houses available one is to rent. If we exclude Lisbon, the rental alternatives are even more scarce, with one in 33 dwellings destined for rental.
In a reading by counties, Lisbon is the only one that presents a ratio above 1 to 5 properties, in terms of rental alternatives compared to the total. The municipalities of Cascais, Odivelas, Oeiras, Amadora, Porto and Almada have a ratio of roughly 1 to 10. The capital aggregates practically a third of the apartments available in the main municipalities (32.3%). With regard to housing, Cascais with 9.8% and Sintra with 7.5% are the most representative locations. If we exclude the municipality of Lisbon, only one in 16 dwellings is to be rented in these main municipalities.
