In 2021, the median effort rate with permanent home loans for borrowers was 12.78% and 130 municipalities (42% of the total), located mainly in the Norte, Centro and Algarve regions, had median values higher than the national reference. The municipality of Albufeira (16.45%) had the highest effort rate in the country. Considering only borrowers with at least one contract celebrated in 2021 (6.8% of all borrowers), the median effort rate was 15.45%.
In Portugal, the 20% of borrowers with the highest effort rates used more than 1/5 (20.99%) of their income to pay their housing credit instalments in 2021. The municipal analysis highlighted 13 municipalities with values above 25% in this indicator, with Albufeira (29.23%) scoring the highest value.
The median effort rate with permanent home loans in 2021 was higher for borrowers aged 34 or under (14.15%), compared to borrowers aged 65 or over (13.03%) and borrowers aged between 35 and 64 (12.56%). In 21 of the 25 NUTS 3 sub-regions, younger borrowers had higher effort rates than borrowers in the other age groups. Algarve, Alto Tâmega and Madeira recorded effort rates for younger borrowers above 15%. Considering only borrowers aged 34 or under belonging to the first half of the distribution of net taxable income (IRS) of all taxable persons – incomes of up to 844 € per month – in 2021, the median value of the effort rate with home loans rose to 19.40% at national level and in the sub-regions of the Algarve (24.07%), A.M. Lisboa (22.54%) and R.A. Madeira (20.74%) the instalments with permanent home loans exceeded 1/5 of income.
The median effort rate for borrowers with home loan contracts involving 2 or more borrowers was 12.21%, being 15.14% for those with a single borrower. The segmentation by gender of borrowers in single borrower contracts showed higher housing effort rates for women (15.39%) comparatively to men (14.84%). This pattern was also found in 17 of the 25 sub-regions. The Algarve was the sub-region with the highest housing effort rates for single borrowers of both genders.
The median effort rate with permanent home loans for borrowers with at least one contract celebrated in 2021 (15.45%) was higher than the effort rate for all borrowers (12.78%). Among the NUTS 3, Algarve had the highest difference (3.92 p.p.) and the highest median effort rate for borrowers with at least one housing credit contract celebrated in 2021 (18.52%).
STATSlab - Statistics in development
