Welcome to the Week em Breve, a wrap-up of important Portuguese news to keep you up to date and in the know.
16 dead in Elevador da Glória crash, investigations underway
An accident on Wednesday evening on Lisbon’s iconic Elevador da Glória — the rail funicular connecting Restauradores in Chiado at the bottom with Bairro Alto at the top — has caused the death of 16 people, marking one of the most devastating incidents in the city in decades.
The victims include several Portuguese, as well as visitors from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, France, Ukraine, and Switzerland.
The accident took the life of brake guard André Marques, who, according to preliminary reports, did all he could to try to prevent the catastrophe, activating the pneumatic brake and the manual brake, which failed to stop the derailed car.
Another 23 people were injured in the accident.
The cause of the accident at this stage has been attributed to the rupture of the cable that pulls one car up using the other car as a counterweight. The rupture caused the car to derail, turn over, and hit a building at a speed of 60 km/h, according to Público.
Carris, the city’s transit authority that several years ago handed over maintenance of Gloria to private contractor MNTC (operating as Main Maintenance Engineering), is projecting an image of transparency, releasing a tranche of documents and contracts related to the funicular, its maintenance, and its inspections, according to Lisboa Para Pessoas.
The city suspended operations on the other three elevadores: Bica, Lavra, and Graça.
Investigations and speculation are now focused on who was responsible. There have been complaints about poor maintenance before, as well as another incident in 2018 that didn’t have any casualties.
Lisbon mayor Carlos Moedas told SIC in an interview that he would resign if any proof exists that he was somehow responsible for a lack of spending on the funicular’s maintenance.
In the same interview, the mayor, up for re-election on Oct. 12, said that resigning would be cowardice, apparently in reference to others.
Portugal’s home prices rise fastest in EU in 1Q
Global house prices fell by 1.0% in the first quarter this year compared to last year, but soared in Portugal by 14%, putting it only behind North Macedonia (+18%) for the largest increase in the world, according to a new report from the Bank for International Settlements.
In the European Union, Portugal’s home price growth was ahead of neighboring Spain (9.3%), as well as France (slightly below 0%), Italy (3%), Germany (2%), and the Netherlands (6.8%).
In case you thought that maybe things have slowed down in Portugal since the first quarter, no: a new report by real estate listing website Idealista shows that prices in August were 8.4% higher than in August last year, with the median price per square meter hitting €2,951 — and €5,866 in Lisbon, according to The Portugal News.
Individual Portuguese owners dominate short-term rental market
Much has been said about the role of foreigners buying expensive real estate and causing home prices to soar, and about the loss of affordable housing as landlords hungry for income convert apartments into short-term rentals. Who are these people?
Well, a new study by the National Local Accommodation Registry (Registo Nacional do Alojamento Local, RNAL) found that companies own one in eight short-term rentals in Lisbon — the rest are owned by individual property owners, according to Público.
And that’s only counting the properties that are actually registered.
Moreover, of the 124,700 units registered as short-term rentals around the country, 117,288 are owned by Portuguese individuals or companies, RNAL found.
The remaining ones are owned by nationals of 101 different countries, according to the report. The British lead the pack, with 1,762 units, followed by the French, with 1,298 properties, and the Germans, who own 710, and Americans, who own 455, Público wrote.
Portugal to “unfreeze” university tuition fees
Education will become just a little more expensive in Portugal as well, with the Ministry of Education scheduled to “unfreeze” tuition fees, which have not changed since 2020, according to Observador.
The ministry said that tuition for the 2026-2027 school year will rise from €697 to €710.
In announcing the increase, Fernando Alexandre, the minister of education, also said that “no one can be excluded from access to higher education for economic reasons,” according to Observador.
69 immigrants, including 13 under 18 years of age, found living in tents to harvest pears in Cadaval
Authorities have charged the owner of a farm in Cadaval, north of Lisbon, with illegal labor violations after Portugal’s National Republican Guard (Guarda Nacional Republicana, GNR) identified 69 immigrants living in “undignified conditions” for the pear harvest.
The workers were sleeping in tents and dealing with their hygienic issues in the middle of the street, as one border control official put it, according to Observador.
Of the 69, 43 are women and the rest are men, and 13 are under 18 years old. All but one are citizens of African countries who are in Portugal legally for vocational education, while one has already acquired Portuguese nationality.
