Yeah, that too, although correct me if I'm wrong, but to me, Lisbon's housing issues seem to be self inflicted by prioritizing Airbnbs and housing for tourists and rich crypto-bro nomads at the expense of its own citizens.
Could probably be fixed if the Portuguese would vote right, no? Meaning it's more of a political issue than an economical one.
Here in Poland there's a lot of property not rented as the law is such that if someone stops paying it'll take you years to (maybe) throw him out. And during all that time you need to pay the bills for him because if he gets cut off from e.g. electricity for not paying you face criminal charges.
I would assume the situation is similar in many places across Europe.
That sounds like the worst. In Austria the tenant is responsible to sign the contracts to the utilities under his own name so if he doesn't pay his bills and gets cut off it's his own problem.
Also some landlords check your payslips to make sure you have a stable income so that evictions are less likely to be needed.
Here it is a choice and many wised up and require the transfer to the tenant or install pre-paid meters on e.g. electricity. Also checking the background has become now much more common.
But either way if someone like that starts living in your property removing him (legally) is really time and money consuming. Many don't take the risk and just leave the flat/house unoccupied.
What people don't understand that one of the major differences between the US and Europe is ownership - in many European countries your property is not really your property. Here the state is solving the possible homelessness issue by forcefully seizing the "private" property.
>in many European countries your property is not really your property. Here the state is solving the possible homelessness issue by forcefully seizing the "private" property
This doesn't ring true at all. What do you mean by this? Where I lived in Europe your property meant your property any way you sliced it.
Yeah, evictions done through the legal system and not via muscle can take a very long time because the system is low and someone squatting in your parament isn't a high priority vs more serious crimes, but that's still your property and the government can't take it away from you.
Could probably be fixed if the Portuguese would vote right, no? Meaning it's more of a political issue than an economical one.