Thousands of people took to the streets this weekend, all over the country, demanding homes to live in. It is preposterous that there are hundreds of thousands of empty houses in Portugal when there are tens of thousands of families without a home to live in.

Despite being enshrined in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, the right to housing is far from being a reality for all families. And the guarantee that everyone has access to a decent home is increasingly distant.

“Housing prices soar 16.3 % at the start of the year”, “House prices reach highest ever rise”, “House prices haven't fallen for 12 years”, are some of the headlines in recent days.

Housing costs are unbearable. Since 2018, housing costs have risen by 80 %, but wages have not increased by that amount, which shows how housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable. Young people who are looking for a place to live and cannot find a house or a room, and some of whom have been waiting two years for a response of support under Porta 65 Jovem, can tell you that.

According to the National Statistics Office (INE), house prices rose 16.3 % in the first three months of this year, reaching a new high, and could get even worse. The measures decided by the PSD/CDS government, namely the exemption from Property Transfer Tax (IMT) and stamp duty, have fuelled the rise in housing prices, as we warned at the time. Besides benefiting the wealthiest, these options have contributed to price rises and the promotion of speculation, as we denounced in due time.

Speculative rents, a two-bedroom apartment for rent for more than a thousand euros, even higher than the national minimum wage, unattainable for the overwhelming majority of low-paid families. Even rooms reach astronomical values, around 400, 500 euros and more, and with adverts referring to additional charges even for the use of the bathroom. What some say is the market functioning is actually total savagery.

In addition to soaring prices, there is instability in rental contracts, with short tenancies and easy evictions. Families are thrown out of their homes, not because they haven't fulfilled their responsibilities, but because they can't afford the speculative rents. Many return to their parents' homes or move in with relatives, move into rooms, garages and shops, and when they find themselves with no alternative, they have no choice but to build a precarious dwelling with inhabitable conditions, which some people simply want to raze, without guaranteeing a decent, permanent housing solution.

The INE data confirm what was already expected: the average rent for new contracts rose by 10 % and the number of new contracts fell by 10.4 % in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period last year. This is the result of the deregulation and liberalisation of renting. This is the problem. They produced tax breaks and exemptions, suggesting that this was the way to get more homes at lower prices. It wasn't and there was no lack of warning. Those who gained from these political choices that unite PS, PSD, CH, CDS, and IL, were exactly the same people who are responsible for the situation we have reached in the Country and who, for decades, have gained from the commodification of housing, from speculation, at the cost of sacrificing families.

This is the situation, with families with housing loans, tied to a lifetime of debt, with high instalments due to interest rates, while bank profits reached record profits of almost 5 billion euros in 2024.

Housing has been turned into a commodity and its right into a business by banks, funds, speculators and real estate interests. Profits take precedence over the satisfaction of a basic need, a home, the basis for building a life. All this, with the complicity and commitment of the PSD/CDS government, with the support of PS, IL and CH.

Insisting on this option will not solve any problems and will only make the right to housing more and more of a mirage. This option is no good.

The current situation demands a break with this path and these right-wing policy options. It requires the courage to confront the big interests of the real estate and financial sectors and to fight speculation.

This is what thousands and thousands of young people, workers and people demanded this weekend. A policy that guarantees the fulfilment of the universal right to housing.

Guaranteeing the right to housing requires the government to assume its responsibilities and invest in increasing the supply of public housing, through the refurbishment of state-owned properties that can and should be mobilised for this purpose and construction where necessary to meet housing shortages.

We also need to regulate rents and protect tenants, allowing for a cut in rents, stability in rentals and the termination of mechanisms that facilitate evictions and weaken tenants, as well as repealing the urban rental law, known as the evictions law.

We also need to protect the housing of mortgage holders, placing the profits of banks to support the high interest rates.

These are the commitments the PCP has made: to intervene and fight for the implementation of the right to housing for all.