We want to implement a referendum about housing in Lisbon for two reasons. The first is because there is a huge housing problem in the city: homes are unaffordable. Housing prices more than doubled since 2014 and are now incompatible with local wages. Today, 92% of the homes available in the rental market in Lisbon cost more than 1000€/month and the medium purchase price of a small one-bedroom apartment is 250.000€. However, the minimum wage is only 820€. The problem is obvious. And since we cannot afford the current housing prices, we are living in ever worse conditions: either we live in Lisbon, but in tiny bedrooms with no natural light, infiltration problems, poor insulation… or we’ve had to move out of the city and must spend long hours of our lives in transit to come to work or study. As some of us were forced to move out of the city, we are also losing the neighbourhood ties we built up in the past. On this subject, it is important to note that more than 20.000 houses in Lisbon are being used as holiday rentals. Now those who stay next door are people who only stay a short time, who aren't interested in building community and who have a lot more money to spend and are therefore willing to give more than we can for a home. Lisbon has lost thousands of residents in the last decade, but we did not choose it to be like this. It happened because our governments preferred to regulate in favour of real-estate investors and against our right to live in the city.

And this is the second reason why we want to implement a referendum about housing in Lisbon: since the public authorities are unwilling to act, it is up to us, the city's inhabitants, to do it. To be able to live in the city, we are going to use this direct democracy tool that has never been used in Portugal, and which will be implemented for the first time in Lisbon: the local referendum by popular initiative. We are going to face the instituted powers, the usual logics about property investment, arguments that we should do things differently and that we're not going in the right direction... but we are not giving up. We want to implement (and win!) a referendum on housing in Lisbon because we need to take the city into our own hands.

If you want to bring your ideas and take part in building the Movement for a Referendum on Housing (MRH), you are very welcome to come along. We need every head, hand, and body to take this forward. Join in. Write to us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..