The website’s first ever report into the renting of rooms shows that demand went up by 123 percent during the first six months of this year, which is more than double the number of searches conducted via the site during the same period of last year. The website’s data further shows that room rental prices went up by nine percent over the past 12 months, and now sit at an average of €220 a month.
The biggest rises in price were registered in Lisbon and Porto, where a room in a shared property costs around €257 per month and €209 per month respectively.
Research into renter profiles concluded Portugal’s house-sharers are generally aged around 31 and live in city centres, they don’t smoke and don’t have (nor are they allowed) pets.
The majority of Lisbon’s room-renters were closest to the average age group, whereas Coimbra had the youngest tenants, largely due to the city’s vast university student population.
“Ninety-three percent of households have tenants of both sexes, six percent house only females and one percent are exclusively male,” reads the report, which indicates that the rental of rooms is no longer an option limited to students.
The renting of rooms is, the report claims, now “also the option chosen by young people starting out on the labour market, and in some cases even later on.”
“On the other hand, home-sharing continues to be a stimulus for many young people wanting to be independent and leave the parental home, a trend that is expected to increase in coming years,” the analysis of Idealista’s study elaborates.