My space in our home: young people strategies to access housing in Lisboa

My space in our home: young people strategies to access housing in Lisboa

Abstract

Difficulties in accessing housing are one of the primary challenges faced by young adults during transitional phases in their lives, leading to subsequent instability. This instability arises from various factors, including constraints within the housing market such as unaffordable prices for both homeownership and renting, as well as challenges related to precarious employment and low incomes. In Lisbon, leaving the parental home poses particular difficulties, driven not only by the soaring housing prices but also by the broader impact on young people’s autonomy, life transitions, and family expectations.

The increasing instability in young people’s housing situations and the emergence of new residential preferences necessitate a critical examination of alternative housing solutions. In a city like Lisbon, where affordability is a major concern, it’s crucial to understand the diverse strategies employed by young individuals to navigate housing access issues and gain independence during transitional phases. New urban and residential practices and values among younger adults, such co-housing, home sharing, and relocating to peripheral areas may be observed. These shifts have various impacts on their lifestyles, residential habits, and domestic experiences.

Drawing on eight exploratory in-depth interviews, this article aims to explore some advantages and challenges of young adults being compelled to share a house with strangers. A ninth interview with the creator of the documentary “A Temporary Situation” offers complementary insights into the daily lives of individuals sharing housing in Lisbon, focusing on the potential disparities between housing aspirations and realities.

Keywords: Housing, Home-sharing, Lisbon, Life trajectories, Young adults.

Figure 1 – Príncipe Real Square, Lisbon, 2024 (Photo by the authors).

According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), over a five-year period (between 2017 and 2022), the median value of rents in the municipality of Lisbon grew by almost 40%. Added to this difficulty is the challenge of accessing limited support programs such as the “porta 65” program [5], which requires applicants to have a previously signed rental contract without guaranteeing support for rent payment upon application.

Data from the 2021 Census underscores the challenges of living alone in rented accommodation: in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, the population aged between 20 and 40 years living alone decreased by 26% between 2011 and 2021. The Census also reveals a notable increase in “private households without family units” and “unrelated persons” in Portugal, rising by 192% compared to 2011.

Many young people find themselves in homes where they do not wish to live, trapped in sharing situations that are problematic and exhausting. Challenges of shared housing include waiting for access to shared facilities like the kitchen, laundry, or bathroom, as well as coordinating guests and household chores among residents. Consequently, many young adults opt to return home to their parents, seeing it as a more viable solution.

Even an average salary falls short of supporting rental market prices, especially considering the prevailing precarious employment conditions and low salaries. High job insecurity among young people, coupled with low and irregular incomes, presents significant barriers to accessing housing. In Lisbon, these challenges have been compounded by various factors, including public policies such as tax benefits for non-habitual residents and the “Gold visa” regime, alongside the unregulated growth of short-term rentals under favourable legal regimes, compared to long-term rentals.

Diving into Home-Sharing Strategies

Shared households embody both physical and social dynamics that are crucial to understanding various socioeconomic contexts, particularly concerning family compositions, social mobility, life trajectories, and housing shortages. The causes that currently lead to home sharing continue to be multiple, especially considering the age group of young adults, as is the case in this article. However, the context of economic instability continues to be one of the most prominent (HARVEY; PERKINS, 2023). While the concept of home sharing is familiar, there remains a gap in exploring the intricacies of living, utilizing, and managing both communal and private interior spaces of homes. Qualitative data analysis emerges as an indispensable tool to disentangle the specificities of each household (HARVEY; PERKINS, 2023).

Figure 2 – In transit, Lisbon, 2024 (Photo by the authors).

Having these considerations in mind, one of the main objectives of this research is to shed light on the challenges young adults face in accessing housing and gain insights into the strategies they employ to address this issue. A qualitative approach was chosen based on exploratory semi-structured interviews, and following a narrative analysis perspective. “Narrative inquiry is first and foremost a way of understanding experience” (CLANDININ; CAINE, 2008: 542). Therefore, it offers a contextualised view, both in space and time, of the interviewees, allowing for the construction of a narrative through a dialogue among participants’ discourses to facilitate the reader’s interpretation (CLANDININ; CAINE, 2008; AYRES, 2008).

Eight young adults, including four women and four men aged between 23 and 35, residing in Lisbon, were interviewed [6]. Among them are two architects of Italian descent who relocated to Portugal for their PhD studies. Lara arrived in 2017, and Luis in 2021. Of the remaining six, four are Portuguese from various regions (Luisa, Júlia, Mário and Ana) and only two already lived in municipalities neighbouring Lisbon (Bruno and Paulo). Among these six interviewees, two are musicians, two are dancers, one is a teacher, and one works in a restaurant, supplemented with other occasional jobs.

All of them have lived in shared houses for several years and face this reality with ambivalent feelings. Positive aspects include good coexistence and a friendly spirit with housemates: “I’ve been sharing houses since I started university and that’s been positive for me, as I’m a very sociable person and living with other people has been a natural fit” (Lara, 35, architect); “Sharing a house with friends was the only viable option to get out of my parents’ house. I wanted my independence and to live in Lisbon” (Paulo, 26, musician). However, the primary reason for employing this housing strategy is the need to share the cost of rent: “In addition to splitting the cost of rent, house-sharing even helps you to be more flexible and tolerant, to understand people better” (Bruno, 24, musician); “In adulthood, you prefer a different kind of life. But if you want to stay in Lisbon, you have no choice but to live with other people in shared houses, because nobody can afford to pay these rents on their own” (Mário, 33, teacher).

Looking ahead, interviewees express a growing aspiration for housing stability, either as sole owners or as couples: “I’d prefer to live with one person at most, because when you have partners or want to invite friends round for dinner it’s more difficult” (Ana, 32, waitress); “When I’m in my mid-30s, it would be great not to have to share a house and to have my own space. If I had the chance now, I’d want to live in a house of my own, because it’s a natural thing to become independent” (Luis, 28, architect); “Giving up house-sharing is an idea that’s becoming more and more common in my head, because I’d like to have my own space and not have to be subject to landlords. I’d like to be able to organize my space and decorate it the way I want” (Julia, 24, dancer). These narratives reveal accumulated fatigue, not only from managing daily situations, but mainly from the instability inherent in renting.

Despite rent increases being regulated by fixed percentages annually, some landlords employ various tactics to maximize their income, leaving tenants with few options but to seek alternative housing. One strategy to captivate landlords, especially when relationships and dynamics among the parties are favourable, is to exhibit “good behaviour.” This encompasses keeping the house tidy and cared, respecting coexistence rules within the building, and fostering positive relations with neighbours: “Cleaning the house is important, especially as the rental agreement is in my name and I have a commitment to look after the house. I have a good relationship with the couple who rented me the house and I want to keep it that way” (Lara, 35, architect); “I was the one who was welcomed into this house. I already knew one of the boys. They liked the fact that they were going to share the house with a girl to help them be more organized. In the other house, the landlady let us choose the third occupant because she wanted a quiet house” (Julia, 24, dancer).

Another commonality among interviewees is how they found their homes. Networks of acquaintances and friends serve as the primary means of transmitting information, whether they are looking for a room to rent or a partner to share a house: “The third element was chosen through friends, and we were lucky. I think one important factor is that we’re all workers, more or less the same age and with the same lifestyles. We all have experience of living together [house-sharing] and at the moment we don’t have any major problems” (Mário, 33, teacher); “This house was found through the contacts of friends. They knew I was looking and knew who had a room available” (Ana, 32, waitress).

In the process of matching supply and demand for shared housing, having some kind of references becomes important for selecting potential housemates, alongside the natural empathy that can develop during selection “interviews”. Usually, landlords give the initial or longest-staying tenant the opportunity to select their housemates, and being responsible for establishing selection processes and even set rules for spatial management and cohabitation. In some cases, the initiative to increase the number of occupants comes from the tenants, as a strategy to lower individual costs and household expenses: “I organized with another friend to move in together and find someone else. We just had to inform the landlord that we were going to do it and he didn’t mind” (Paulo, 26, musician); “The living room is being used as a bedroom because it has a window. We opted to have one more person to share the expenses” (Ana, 32, waitress); “The room that used to be the living room is next to the kitchen. It’s a bit annoying because we have to be much more careful not to make noise at certain times of the night or morning, to avoid disturbing the colleague who sleeps there” (Bruno, 24, musician).

Capturing the Sense of ‘Imminent Tragedy’

In her autobiographical documentary “A Temporary Situation,” Portuguese filmmaker Ânia Bento provides a poignant insight into the daily struggles of two young women pursuing their dreams in Lisbon. Despite their aspirations, they face the harsh reality of having to share a home, experiencing common challenges such as cramped living spaces, chaotic shared areas, and the constant negotiation required to coexist with housemates.

Figure 3 – Homesharing (From the documentary “A Temporary situation”, by Ânia Bento).

These conditions, though viewed as temporary, are accepted with resignation, underscored by the protagonists’ visible disenchantment over time. A significant moment occurs when one of the protagonists confesses to her mother the shame she feels about her living situation, lacking access to mailbox keys and a permanent address for potential employers.

Both women work in a fancy bijouterie shop in Lisbon, yet they reside in different locations, barely earning enough to cover living expenses and rent. The documentary juxtaposes the glamour of the tourist flow with scenes of poverty, homelessness, and elderly individuals in the city center and the protagonists’ neighborhood, highlighting the challenges of realizing young people’s dreams in such an environment.

For Ânia, house-sharing is not a choice but a necessity due to the absence of viable alternatives. She confides to her mother the desire to be alone to avoid the constant negotiation with fellow tenants. Through her documentary, Ânia seeks to give voice to those experiencing similar conditions and spark a conversation about the scarcity of affordable housing and precarious living situations in Lisbon.

Figure 4 – Homesharing (From the documentary “A Temporary situation”, by Ânia Bento).

Although the feeling of “imminent tragedy” did not explicitly emerge in the previous eight interviews, it can be inferred that all interviewees accept their provisional housing situation as a necessary strategy for emancipation and transition into adulthood. However, it remains crucial to understand the potential emotional toll when they perceive themselves as mature adults trapped in the same housing situation.

In conclusion, “A Temporary Situation” sheds light on the harsh realities faced by young adults in Lisbon, where house-sharing becomes less of a personal choice and more of a necessity. Ânia’s documentary serves as a call to action, urging society to address the scarcity of affordable housing and the precarious living conditions that many individuals endure.

Final Notes

House-sharing is not a new phenomenon in Lisbon, a city that has a long history of struggling with housing shortage and poor housing conditions. It was not until the last quarter of the 20^th century that the medium class young residents could aspire to rent or buy a house by their own or as young couples. Before those days, a young woman would never live by their own, a young man would probably rent a room in a family house and it was common for young couples to live in a multiple generation family house, with their in-laws.

However, for the younger generations, born in a democratic society after the April 1974 revolution and after Portugal became a membership of the European Union (1986) – with higher education levels and a more equalitarian gender distribution in the labour market – the expectations are different. On one hand, young adults are the most qualified Portuguese generation ever and see themselves as part of a European cultural context. But, on the other hand, they feel trapped in a transitory housing situation which seems to leave no room for improvement.

In this context, after university years, sharing a house with strangers is seen as an advantage only from the financial point of view, an economical strategy to allow them to live in the city. But from the social and emotional point of view, it is perceived as a failure and a personal limbo, where the inconveniences are hard to deal with. Interviewees always thought that this was a transitory experience and that, in a near or distant future, they would go back to a “traditional” family home, where they would build a home rather than sharing a house. But, for the moment, that seems a distant dream, impossible to achieve.

In the present European economical context, it is difficult to foresee what the long-term consequences of these situations will be. The film maker Ânia Bento decided to go back to her hometown in the South of Portugal. Although we don’t have official numbers yet, empiric data seem to indicate that young people are giving up living in the city centre. Covid’19 pandemic may have accelerated this process, together with real estate speculation. After Covid, housing prices continued to raise, broadening the gap between aspirations and expectations concerning housing and ways of living.

Residential patterns are never rigid nor static, and are always a mirror of social structures and family patterns. In this sense, the data presented in this paper are just one more chapter of the Portuguese domestic life history. Still, it is worth mentioning that, for the first time in decades, we are facing a change in housing patterns that is not perceived as a social improvement but, on the contrary, as a loss of fundamental rights.

Acknowledgements

Maria Assunção Gato acknowledges the support of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) through Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon, under the transitional rule of DL57/2016, amended by Law 57/2017, and through DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte (project UIDB/03127/2020). Filipa Ramalhete acknowledges the research support by CEU – Cooperativa de Ensino Universitário.

Bibliography

III Congresso da União Internacional dos Arquitetos – UIA, e Exposição de Arquitectura Contemporânea Brasileira. Arquitectura, Lisboa, n.º 53, dezembro 1954, p. 9-22.

A Visita dos Estudantes Brasileiros de Arquitectura. Arquitectura, Lisboa, n.º 28, janeiro 1949. Secção comentários, p. 26.

ANTUNES, Gonçalo – Políticas de Habitação 200 Anos. Casal de Cambra: Caleidoscópio, 2018.

AYRES, Lioness – Narrative Text. In GIVEN, Lisa M. (ed.) – The Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2008, p. 545-546.

BOULIANNE, Manon – Intergenerational Home Sharing and Secondary Suites in Québec City Suburbs: Family Projects and Urban Planning Regulations (Research Report). Canada: Université Laval, for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, February 2004.

CIERAAD, Irene — Home. In CALLAN, Hilary (ed.) – The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Hilary Callan (ed.). Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2018.

CIERAAD, Irene – ‘Out of my kitchen!’ Architecture, gender and domestic efficiency. The Journal of Architecture, 7:3. 2002, p. 263-279.

CLANDININ, Jane; CAINE, Vera. – Narrative Inquiry. In GIVEN, Lisa M. (ed.) – The Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2008, p. 542-545.

CLARKE, Alison. J. – The aesthetics of social aspiration. In MILER, Daniel (ed.) – Home Possessions: Material Culture Behind Closed Doors. Oxford: Berg, 2001, p. 23-45.

CSIKSZENTMIHALYI, Mihaly; ROCHBERG-HALTON, Eugene – The Meaning of Things: domestic symbols and the self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

GARVEY, Pauline – Organized disorder: moving furniture in Norwegian homes. In MILLER, Daniel (ed.) – Home Possessions: Material Culture Behind Closed Doors. Oxford: Berg, 2001, p. 60-72.

HARVEY, Hope; PERKINS, Kristin L. – Shared Housing and Housing Instability. In MCCABE, Brian J.; ROSEN, Eva (eds.) – The sociology of housing. How homes shape our social lives. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2023, p. 135-147.

HOLDSWORTH, Clare – ‘Going away to uni’: mobility, modernity, and Independence of English higher education students. Environment and Planning, A, vol. 41, 2009, p. 1849-1864.

KENYON, Liz – A Home from Home – Students’ transitional experience of home. In CHAPMAN, Tony; HOCKEY, Jenny (eds.) – Ideal Homes? Social Change and domestic life. London and New York: Routledge, 1999, p. 84-95.

LÖFGREN, Orvar – The Sweetness of Home. Class, Culture and Family life in Sweden. In LOW, S. & LAWRENCE-ZÚÑIGA, D. (ed.), – The Anthropology of Space and Place: Locating culture. Malden (USA), Oxford (UK), Victoria (Australia): Wiley-Blackell, 2003, p. 149-159.

MILLER, Daniel – Behind Closed Doors. In MILLER, Daniel (ed.) – Home Possessions: Material Culture Behind Closed Doors. Oxford: Berg, 2001a, p. 1-12.

MILLER, Daniel – Possessions. In MILLER, Daniel (ed.) – Home Possessions: Material Culture Behind Closed Doors. Oxford: Berg, 2001b, p. 107-122.

PEREIRA, Miriam Halpern – Demografia e desenvolvimento em Portugal na segunda metade do século XIX. Análise Social, v. VII (25-26), 1969, p. 85-117.

PEREIRA, Nuno Teotónio; BUARQUE, Irene – Evolução das formas de habitação plurifamiliar na cidade de Lisboa. Lisboa: Câmara Municipal de Lisboa / IHRU, 2017 (1ª ed. Prédios e vilas de Lisboa. Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, 1995) (coord. Rita Mégre e Ana Mafalda Reis).

PEREIRA, Nuno Teotónio – Pátios e vilas de Lisboa, 1870-1930: a promoção privada do alojamento operário. Análise Social, v. XXIX (127), 1994 (3.º), p. 509-524.

RAMALHETE, Filipa – ‘Lá fora’: partilhar casa fora de casa (Home sharing abroad). In COSTA, Pedro; ALLEGRI, Alessia (eds.) – Homeland, News from Portugal. Lisboa: Note, 2014, p. 148-149.

RAMALHETE, Filipa; GATO, Maria Assunção – Students living abroad: the art of home sharing. Estudo Prévio 8. Lisboa: CEACT/UAL – Centro de Estudos de Arquitetura, Cidade e Território da Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, 2015. ISSN: 2182-4339 [Disponível em: www.estudoprevio.net]

RAMOS, Alice; ALVAREZ, Evelia – Enquadramento teórico. In SAGNIER, Laura; MORELL, Alex (coord.) – Os jovens em Portugal hoje. Quem são, que hábitos têm, o que pensam e o que sentem?. Lisboa: Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos, 2021, p. 11-29.

Portugal numa perspetiva intergeracional. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 2019.

Notes

1. According to the National Statistics Institute, the percentage of single-parent families in Portugal increased from 15% in 2011 to 18.5% in 2021, with 85% of these families being mothers with children (INE, Censos 2021).

2. The percentage of people living alone rose from 21.4% in 2011, to 24.8 per cent in 2021, with a clear predominance of elderly women, who have a higher life expectancy compared to men.

3. According to Eurostat, Portugal has the fastest rate of population ageing of all 27 European Union member states. The median age has risen by 4.7 years in ten years. In 2022, half of the Portuguese population was over 46.8 years old, the second highest median age of all the countries analysed, after Italy (48 years).

4. In 2020, the average age of young people leaving their parents’ home was of 30 years old, and in 2021 was 33 years old (Eurostat).

5. Porta 65 is a national policy program to help the access of young people to housing, in which tenants can apply for a subsidy to help pay their rent, depending on their family income.

6. The names of the interviewees are fictional to ensure their anonymity and protect their identity.