Second Homes and Residential Tourism: New Forms of Housing, new Real Estate Market

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the discussion on the evolution of the housing market in Portugal and the role of the expansion of second homes in its dynamics. The strong expansion of second home phenomenon, though it may partly reflect the accumulation (and eventual abandonment) of an obsolete housing stock, can also be considered a challenge to the revitalization of the housing market from the standpoint of the expansion of the demand, as well as of finding new ways of marketing “residential tourism real estate”. Aside from official sources of statistical information, the results of the field survey obtained in the framework of the 2008-2012 project “SEGREX Expansion of Second Homes and Development Planning in Portugal”, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology, were used.