On real estate prices in Portugal: don’t think Blackrock is the issue here as Katie was saying (at least never heard about it).
The money printer obviously had a big effect, but also the fact that Portugal built half the amount of housing it used to in the last 20 years.
Immigrants probably had an effect in expensive real estate only, which should actually stimulate new construction elsewhere.
The problem is that approving a construction project is a bureaucratic nightmare that takes years (nostr:npub1dtf79g6grzc48jqlfrzc7389rx08kn7gm03hsy9qqrww8jgtwaqq64hgu0 mentioned it took him 4 years in a recent podcast episode).
The rental market is tiny, because you’d be crazy to rent out your apartment with the current laws.
Buying a house involves paying 4 related taxes and 23% sales tax in building materials will be passed to you by the builder.
All this to say, there’s more ways for politicians to be incompetent than money printing.
In Lisbon, things get approved much more quickly, but if you want to re-build a ruin in the countryside, of which there are many, it’s a nightmare. And there’s not much nice to rent outside of the city, either.
I suspect they’ll have to gut the bureaucracy before long — it’s just such a massive massive drag on the economy and quality of life here.
No replies yet.
