In terms of the number of properties listed, the top three long-term rental providers in Lisbon, Portugal are Uniplaces, Erasmus, and Spotahome; while the top three short-term players are Airbnb, Salovani-traveling to Lisbon, and Lisbon Apartments. Below are our deep findings and detailed methodology. Findings:
Top three long-term rental providers
- Why it has been selected as one of the top players:
- It provides rentals for students and digital nomads visiting Lisbon for a few months.
- It is also is considered to be a long-term provider as it provides its rent for all its listings on a monthly basis
- It is considered to be a top provider as it has the maximum number of listings, 6,092 in total.
- Why it has been selected as one of the top players:
- It is a long term provider as it provides accommodation for students and professionals who are the primary customers of long-term rentals.
- Erasmus also shows the rents of its properties on a 'per month basis'.
- It is considered as top provider as it has the second highest number of properties listed, 3,140 in total.
- Why it has been selected as one of the top players:
- Spotahome is recognized as a long term provider as its an alternative to Airbnb. It focuses on people that want to rent on a mid to long-term basis.
- It also shows the rent of its properties on a per month basis.
- It is considered as one of the top providers as it has the third highest numbers of properties listed, 1,993 in total.
Top three short-term rental providers
- Why it has been selected as one of the top players:
- Airbnb is a short-term provider as its customers rent a castle for a night, a sailboat for a week, or an apartment for a month.
- It has been considered a top provider as it has 300+ places to stay in Lisbon with rent given on a per night basis.
- Why it has been selected as one of the top players:
- It is considered within the top 3 list as it offers around 150 apartments for the short-term rentals (2, 3 days or more).
- It is also considered to be the market leader in short-term apartment rentals in Lisbon.
- Why it has been selected as one of the top players:
- It is considered within the top 3 list as it provides 108 apartments for vacation homes which are considered to be short term rentals.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
To find information pertaining to the research criteria, we began our search by going through the research documents published by globally reputed property dealers such as Newmark Knight Frank, Colliers International, Cushman & Wakefield and Kidder Mathews, among others. Our aim was to look into details relating to the rental market of Portugal and then focus upon the providers working in Lisbon and their market positions. Although there were details on the Portugal market in terms of value and overall size of the market, growth, and new trends, we could not find granular information in terms of rental providers in the city of Lisbon.
Next, we looked into websites which included similar information such as Homes and Property, Portugalist, Europages, among others. Here, our aim was to look into articles or summary reports published on these sites and find a comprehensive account of all the players listed in the market. Although the information we found was limited, we could find an article on Portugalist website providing the names of all the major players in the market. Therefore, on each company provided on the list, we checked its website to find the needed information. The website provides a list of 11 companies. To find more companies other than those covered on this list, we looked further into sources which have reviews from people visiting Lisbon on sources such as Trip Advisor, Facebook groups dedicated to apartments and rooms for rent in Lisbon such as Casas e Apartamentos para arrendar em Lisboa, Arrenda Lisboa Low Cost – Apartamentos, Lisboa – Quartos e Apartamentos, among others. These sources provided a reference to a couple of more providers. These rental market providers have been added to the list as shown on the Living Lisbon and Short Stay Flat websites.
Finally, we searched for research reports on the rental market published by McKinsey, BCG, PWC Deloitte, among others, and sources that provided market insights on European countries and cities such as Euromonitor, Nielsen, among others. However, these sources did not provide any specific list of players pertaining to Lisbon and rather provided insights on the entire market. We also looked for quantitative information on sites such as Statista and other business sources such as Forbes for the total number of providers. However, there was no such information available on these sources.
NOTE: From the above strategies, we could find 13 rental providers in Lisbon. So to select the three long-term and short-term providers, we used the evaluation below.
- AirBnB: Why it was included has been explained in details in the findings section. It is the top short-term provider in terms of properties listed.
- Spotahome: Why it was included has been explained in details in the findings section. It is the third top long-term provider in terms of properties listed.
- Nestpick: It was not considered due to its aggregated listings from the other sites.
- Long Term Lettings: This was considered as a long-term provider with rental properties listed on monthly rent basis. This was not included in the final list as it only had 29 properties listed.
- Sublet: This was considered for both short-term and long-term as it has both type of listings as mentioned on its website. However, it could not make into any of the top lists because it has 73 rental properties listed.
- Expat: This could not also make into any of the top-lists as it has only 21 properties listed.
- Red Apple Apartments: This could also not feature into any of the top-lists as it has only 12 properties listed.
- Lisbon Apartments: It was considered as one of the top short-term rental providers. Why it was considered has been explained in the findings.
- Sabbatical Homes: This one also did not feature into any of the top lists as it has only 22 providers.
- Erasmus Lisbon: Why it was included has been explained in details in the findings section. It is the second top long-term provider in terms of properties listed.
- Uniplace Lisbon: Why it was included has been explained in details in the findings section. It is the top long-term provider in terms of properties listed.
- Salovani-Traveling to Lisbon: Why it was included has been explained in details in the findings section. It is the second short-term provider in terms of properties listed.
- Short Stay Flat: It was not included as a short-term provider as it has 60 apartments.
After evaluating each in the way above, this is, in terms of the number of properties listed, we could find the top three long-term rental providers and the top three short-term rental providers in Lisbon, Portugal.