Thousands Protest High Living Costs and Housing Crisis Nationwide

Saturday, 17 October 2026AI summary

📍 Loulé 🏛️ Government 🏠 Property #property-market #housing-crisis #expat-wellbeing #cost-of-living

Thousands Protest High Living Costs and Housing Crisis Nationwide — Photo: Portugal Resident

Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through Lisbon, Porto, and Coimbra to protest soaring living costs and escalating housing prices. Organised by the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses or CGTP), the protests called for higher wages to counter steep inflation and rents. In Lisbon, housing activists gathered at Rossio Square to establish an encampment, drawing attention to government policies and the country's housing shortage.

Update: Housing Activists Camp Overnight in Lisbon and Porto Squares

Protesters maintained overnight tent encampments in Lisbon's Rossio and Porto's Praça D. João I after demonstration permits expired at midnight, with police opting not to intervene. In Porto, demonstrators voted during an assembly to continue occupying the square, while emergency services extinguished a rubbish container that had been set on fire nearby.

Context & Explainers

The General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers (CGTP – Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses) is Portugal’s largest trade-union confederation, grouping most unions in manufacturing, public services and many other sectors.

Founded clandestinely in 1970 as “Intersindical” under the dictatorship, it emerged publicly after the 1974 Carnation Revolution and was legalised in 1975. It has been central to virtually all major labour struggles since then, from defending collective bargaining and the 40‑hour week to leading general strikes against austerity and labour‑law rollbacks.

CGTP is historically close to the Portuguese Communist Party and has a class‑struggle, anti‑neoliberal profile, strongly critical of EU and government policies seen as undermining workers’ rights. It favours grassroots mobilisation and strikes over compromise, often refusing national social‑pact deals that the more centrist UGT is willing to sign.

In today’s Portugal, CGTP remains a key actor in wage bargaining, labour‑law debates and national protests; together with UGT it called the first joint general strike in years in December 2025, signalling its continuing capacity to organise mass action.

Portugal’s house prices have risen faster than the EU average since 2020, and recent reports list Portugal among the countries with the largest price increases over that period. That stronger price growth has worsened affordability in Lisbon and Porto in particular, so prospective buyers and renters should check local indices and mortgage costs before deciding.