ImoEconometrics · Economic analysis · 30 October 2026
Affordability is a relationship
A home is not affordable simply because it is priced below neighbouring properties. Analysis should relate housing costs to disposable income, household composition and location-related expenses. The same rent can impose very different burdens on different households.
Understand the geography and target households
Metropolitan labour and housing markets extend across administrative boundaries. A diagnosis should identify where target households live and work, which unit types they need and their transport alternatives. Access to employment, education and services influences the total cost of living in a location.
Align affordability with project feasibility
A project’s structure must connect prices or rents affordable to its target households with land, construction, financing, maintenance and management costs. Any funding gap should be quantified and its coverage identified: land provision terms, financing, public support or a combination of mechanisms. Future maintenance costs should remain visible.
A combination of instruments
The OECD’s 2026 Economic Survey of Portugal frames affordability as a challenge requiring complementary measures addressing supply, use of existing housing, residential mobility and support for households in need. Assessing a particular instrument requires distinguishing short-term demand effects from medium-term supply effects.
From intentions to delivery and evaluation
Monitoring should distinguish announced, contracted, under-construction and occupied homes. Indicators such as cost per delivered home, delivery time, household housing-cost burdens, tenure stability and management quality help assess results. Economic and social objectives should be defined before financing instruments are selected, so that delivery responds to the identified need.