In our previous newsletter we looked at the new affordable rent regime: the state gives the owner a tax break if the lease meets certain conditions and the rent stays within a set limit. But the system has a feature tenants may not expect: there is no single website that lists all of these apartments.
So if you are looking for housing below market price, you have to search in several places at once: the usual property sites, state and municipal tenders, and, for temporary housing, Facebook groups and sublets.
Each of these works differently. In some cases you can find an apartment today and discuss terms directly with the owner; in others you first have to register and wait for a tender.
If you can wait: check the state housing institute’s tenders
Instituto da Habitação e da Reabilitação Urbana, or IHRU, is Portugal’s Institute for Housing and Urban Rehabilitation. As well as regulating housing programmes, it allocates some housing directly through tenders. This is a different mechanism from a private apartment whose owner has decided to let it under the affordable rent rules.
At the time of writing, IHRU is running several tenders for 77 apartments in 19 municipalities, from Amadora, Sintra and Setúbal to Porto, Aveiro, the Algarve and the interior of the country. Applications are accepted until 17 September through the IHRU Arrenda platform. If you are reading this on the day the newsletter goes out, it is the last day of the current tender.
You can check for new tenders on the IHRU Arrenda page. For each round it publishes the list of apartments, the conditions and a separate aviso de abertura, the official notice opening the tender.
There is one important detail. The current tender opened on 27 August, before the new regime came into force, so its instructions still refer to the Certificado de Registo de Candidatura from the old PAA programme. To take part, you first need to obtain this certificate and only then choose apartments in IHRU Arrenda.
RSAA does not replace the other affordable rent programmes and does not bring all this housing together on one platform. It governs private leases that come with a tax break for the owner. IHRU housing and the municipal programmes in Lisbon and Porto are allocated separately, through their own tenders and platforms.
In Lisbon, watch Habitar Lisboa, not the property sites
Lisbon has its own Programa Renda Acessível, a municipal affordable rent programme. The city releases apartments from time to time and selects tenants through a tender and a lottery.
You cannot simply open a catalogue at any moment and rent an available apartment. You need to watch for the next tender on Habitar Lisboa, register, submit your documents and choose from the apartments in that particular round.
The most recent Habitar Lisboa tender at the time of writing included housing of different sizes and accepted applications until July. The current tender mentioned above is run by IHRU, which is a separate programme. Earlier Habitar Lisboa tenders took place in May and June, so the programme works in rounds rather than as a permanent listings board.
So if you are looking for housing in Lisbon not for next week but a few months ahead, it makes sense to register on Habitar Lisboa and check the Renda Acessível section regularly.
The programme has its own eligibility criteria. For example, it takes into account a household’s declared income and housing situation, and for some tenders the city may add extra conditions such as age, profession or other requirements. Treat past tender notices only as a guide: the conditions need to be read again for each new round.
In Porto, you can register in advance and wait for the next lottery
Porto runs a municipal programme called Porto com Sentido. The city rents some apartments from private owners and then lets them to tenants under the affordable rent programme.
For anyone looking for housing, it has one convenient feature: on the Porto Vivo platform you can create a candidate profile. Once it has been checked, your application stays active for a year and can be entered into suitable lotteries whenever apartments of the right size become available and you meet the conditions.
Over the summer Porto Vivo held its 43rd lottery of this kind. Apartments come up in small batches in different parts of the city.
The strategy here is different from Idealista: don’t wait until you see an attractive listing. Create an application on the Porto Vivo affordable rent platform in advance and follow the next rounds.
If you need an apartment right now, look at ordinary rentals
The new affordable rent regime applies to the lease, not only to apartments in a special state catalogue. So it makes sense to search on the usual sites and through agencies, and once you have found something, to discuss the terms of the lease with the owner.
Even the official guidance for the previous affordable rent programme advised looking for an apartment in the usual way, through property portals or an agent, because the state platform itself did not show private properties.
When searching, it is worth using the usual filters and also the terms arrendamento acessível, renda acessível and RSAA. But if a listing doesn’t include them, that proves nothing: an owner may not advertise the apartment as “affordable” at all and still agree to this kind of lease during negotiations.
So you can put the question to the owner directly: would they consider an affordable rent lease in exchange for the tax break?
When choosing an apartment, it helps to compare the rent with your annual income. In the next newsletter we will explain how to work that out from a Portuguese job offer, including holiday pay, Christmas pay and the meal allowance. Don’t miss that issue, and subscribe to the Xpat.Land newsletter if you haven’t already.
Facebook and sublets: where to find housing for a few months
There is another market that hardly shows up on the big property sites: people leave for a few months, free up a room, look for someone to replace them in a shared apartment or want to hand over the rest of their lease quickly.
These offers tend to appear in Facebook groups, Telegram and WhatsApp communities, student groups and local chats.
Below are large Facebook groups where housing is actively posted right now. In public groups you can see the listings without joining; in private ones you first have to request to join and wait for the admins to approve you. To post anything yourself, you will need to join either way.
Lisbon
- LISBON — Rent a House, Villa, Apartment, Flat, Condo, Room, Bedspace — about 200,000 members. Apartments, rooms and beds in shared rooms; listings without a price, neighbourhood or photos are removed. Public.
- Casas, Apartamentos e Quartos para ARRENDAR em Lisboa e Grande Lisboa — 160,000 members, in Portuguese, rentals in Lisbon and its suburbs only. Public.
- Arrendamento Quartos e Casas em Lisboa — 74,000 members, in Portuguese. Both offers and requests from people looking for housing. Public.
- Erasmus & Expats in Lisbon | Accommodation — 33,000 members, in English, for students and expats. Requests give move-in and move-out dates, so there are plenty of options for a few months. Public.
Porto
- Casas / Quartos para arrendar no PORTO — 140,000 members, in Portuguese, offers and requests. Public.
- Porto — Apartamentos / Quartos / Casas — Arrendamento / Aluguer — 99,000 members, private listings only; agencies are not allowed to post. Public.
- Quartos para arrendar Porto e arredores / Rooms for rent — 39,000 members, rooms only. Public.
- Porto Expats — 57,000 members, a general expat group in English. Housing posts are allowed once a week, on Wednesdays. Private.
Across the country, for a few months
- Portugal Short-Term/Mid-Term/Long Term Home Rentals By Owner — 59,000 members, short, medium and long-term rentals directly from owners. Private: people who don’t answer the membership questions are not admitted.
- Portugal Short Term Rentals — 20,000 members, short-term housing and room shares. Public.
Listings in these groups are free to view. In some groups, though, the person posting pays. For example, in the Lisbon group LISBON — Housing, Apartments, Rooms, Sublets, with 25,000 members, posting a listing costs 4 euros. Large groups make money in other ways: they hand out promo codes for 10–25% off the service fee on booking sites such as Uniplaces, Spotahome, ErasmusU and Inlife. But if you, as a tenant, are asked to pay for access to a list of apartments or for a viewing, treat it as a warning sign.
On Telegram there are hardly any large chats devoted specifically to renting: people usually look for housing in general city chats. The biggest of these are in Russian and Ukrainian: Чат Лиссабон (Lisbon Chat, about 9,000 members), Чат Порту (Porto Chat, about 4,000) and Українці в Португалії (Ukrainians in Portugal, 18,000, nationwide).
WhatsApp is a different story: these groups are harder to find, and invite links often change or are only shared in private messages. Invitations are usually posted in rental Facebook groups, Erasmus student communities and general expat chats. Bear in mind that some of these groups are run by booking sites or paid clubs: the main group is free, but you may be asked to pay for access to extra subgroups.
This channel is especially useful if you need an apartment or a room for a few months while you look for permanent housing. Listings may call it a sublet, a temporary room let, a search for a replacement tenant or a short-term rental. Always check who you are actually signing the lease with: the owner or the current tenant.
Keep in mind that social media is only a way to find a person. It is no guarantee that they have the right to rent the place to you.
If it’s a sublet, don’t just ask whether it’s available
In Portugal, subletting, or subarrendamento, has its own rules. If the apartment is offered to you not by the owner but by the current tenant, that tenant must have the owner’s written permission to sublet. This is set out directly in the Civil Code.
So before you pay, ask to see the main lease and the owner’s written consent to the sublet. Your own agreement should state the address, the room or apartment, how long you will stay, the amount and the person you are paying.
There is one more risk: a sublet depends on the main lease. If the lease of the person subletting to you ends, your sublet ends with it.
Five things to check before you transfer any money
Whether you found the apartment on an ordinary portal or through a Facebook post, first work out who actually has the right to rent this housing to you.
If you are dealing with the owner, check their details and the lease. If it is the current tenant, ask for the main lease and the owner’s permission to sublet. In Portugal, a lease for urban housing must be made in writing.
Then check four more things:
- what exactly you are renting: the whole apartment or a specific room;
- the start and end dates of the lease;
- which costs are included in the rent and which are paid separately;
- what document will confirm each payment.
A listing that exists only on Facebook or WhatsApp is not automatically suspicious. But a social network is no substitute for documents.
