[ableal]

(Just a short note on an irksome phrase in that piece:)

"This is because in Portugal owning your own house or apartment has always been such a matter of pride that it is the first choice of most people, even young adults."

That's if "always" means "as far as I can remember", written by a fairly young writer. Fifty years ago renting was the most common mechanism in Portuguese cities, until rent-control (first instituted before 1970's inflation) nearly killed it, and state-subsidized bank mortgages became the norm. Unsurprisingly, forty years of that contributed to the economy crash.