I think that the birth rate in Portugal is about 1.3 per woman so long term rents and property prices will crash unless you find people to fill all those houses.
True or not, 10,000-foot talk about long-term trends does not do sh*t to help lower-income natives who are being priced out of the market now, and getting desperate for workable places to live.
Maybe the new folks could live rough until that eventual demographic collapse frees up housing for 'em?
I've just looked it up: Portugal's population has been decreasing since 2009 and is at about the same level as it was during the mid-80s [1] (facts, same as my previous comment, not emotional perception). Furthermore, current UN projections to the end of the century are rather dire (30% population decline).
So, whatever housing issues people might face they do not seem to be caused by population pressure on housing. Now, in some areas there might be a level of pressure due to second homes (i.e. empty houses with no permanent residents) but that's a bit of a different issue.
Okay - how about the new folks avoid the trendier and more-urban areas (where local population is increasing, and housing costs skyrocketing), and flock to the smaller & remoter villages in the countryside, where the local population trends are far more negative?
I have an idea. Tie housing construction goals to incoming migration numbers. If 10,000 people move to a city in a year, the city must permit 10,000 new housing starts. No room to meet your city’s goal? Rezone that empty lot that’s zoned for hotel. (I know you have one, every city does).
Permit is a funny word because it means both the piece of paper that allows a developer to build and also “to grant permission” the city has the power to grant or withhold permission to build. And to be perfectly frank the default position is withhold. But we have the power to change that.
We can simply demand it of our elected officials.
We should welcome people who want to move in (because economic success depends on it but also because it’s friendly and healthy) but we can also make a plan so they don’t squeeze out the locals. I know Silicon Valley utterly failed to do that. Maybe other places could learn from their abject failure.
It's quite simple. The Portuguese should have more children. The way these demographic trends are discussed as inevitable or intractable is quite funny to me.
Sure, one couple can't do it alone. But a general cultural shift towards pro-natalism, with the support of generous government benefits for parents, just might do the trick.
Maybe the new folks could live rough until that eventual demographic collapse frees up housing for 'em?
Didn't think so.