Housing problems during the recession post 2008 in Portugal and Spain

Abstract

This reflection has as a backdrop the impact of economic recession and financial access
to housing in Portugal and Spain, that affects homeowners who are becoming economically unable
to meet financial commitments for purchasing housing, and those who being potential buyers in an
environment not recessive, have now cut off the access to credit. Faced with this new housing
problem, which is increasing in size and complexity, it is intended to expand the knowledge about
the processes associated with the phenomenon of the "new dislodge" and contribute to reassess
the forms of balance the (re)adjustment between supply and demand for housing, given the
vulnerability and reactivity of the market and worsening shortages of housing, including that
resulting from de-harmonization between income and expenditure on housing that is increasingly
affecting families.
The objectives of this paper are firstly to understand the housing problems generated by the
economic and financial recession as well as its associated mechanisms, secondly to identify the
weaknesses of institutional responses and finally to confront different perspectives regarding the
solutions adopted until now. The methodology addresses the analyses of the two axes of the
problem here discussed, the housing market and the housing policies (in its principles and
procedures), in the two Iberian countries.