Areeiro (Lisbon)

Areeiro
Civil parish
Clockwise: Alameda Dom Afonso Henriques; the Fonte Luminosa; Caixa Geral de Depósitos headquarters; Instituto Nacional de Estatística; Praça do Areeiro.
Coordinates: 38°44′31″N 9°08′02″W / 38.742°N 9.134°W / 38.742; -9.134
Country	Portugal
Region	Lisbon
Metropolitan area	Lisbon
District	Lisbon
Municipality	Lisbon
Area
• Total	1.74 km2 (0.67 sq mi)
Population  (2021)
• Total	21,160
• Density	12,000/km2 (31,000/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC±00:00 (WET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+01:00 (WEST)
Patron	John of God and the Twelve Apostles
Website	http://www.jf-areeiro.pt/

Areeiro (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐˈɾjɐjɾu]) is a freguesia (civil parish) and typical quarter of Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal. Located in central Lisbon, Areeiro is east of Avenidas Novas, east of Marvila, south of Alvalade, and north of Beato, Penha de França, and Arroios. The population in 2021 was 21,160.^[1][2]

History

This freguesia was created with the 2012 Administrative Reform of Lisbon, merging the former parishes of Alto do Pina and São João de Deus.^[3]

Economy and Social conditions

Employement

In the parish of Areeiro there are 760 residents who, as of 2021, were unemployed. Of these, 42.63% received a state-fund subsidy or pension (41.34% in Lisbon).^[4] In 2021 the unemployment rate in the parish is slightly lower than the one recorded for Lisbon and for Portugal as a whole, standing at 7.31%. In the same year, Portugal as a whole had an unemployment rate of 8.13% that has progressively decreased to 6.1% in 2023. As the statistics dealing with unemployment at the parish level are available only every 10 years, the current (2023) unemployment rate in Areeiro is unknown.^[5][6] Amongst youth aged 15–24 the unemployment rate in 2021 in the parish stood at 15.53%, 16.86% lower than in the rest of the country.^[7]

On the other hand, in 2021 9,641 residents were employed, of which 72.34% were employees and 24.78% were independent workers.^[8] Below is the table showing the employment rate per age group. The low share of people aged 20–24 employed is due to the fact that many are still in education (e.g. university) while the low proportion of those in employment aged 60–64 is due to many being early pensioners.^[9]

Dealing with commuting, the residents of Areeiro spent 20.55 minutes of daily commuting, 2 minutes less than the average inhabitant of Lisbon.^[10]

Social conditions

Dealing with overcrowding in the parish's households, 4.82% of the population lives in accommodations where they have less than 15 m² per capita (8.71% for Lisbon and 5.65% in Portugal as a whole), while 48.06% live in houses with more than 40 m² per capita (39.64% for Lisbon and 46.84% in Portugal as a whole).^[11] There are 7,294.2 dwellings per km² (3,200.5 for Lisbon and 64.9 in Portugal as a whole).^[12]

49.8% of the population lives in owned dwellings as of 2021; this is slightly lower than the values recorded both for Lisbon (50.3%) but significantly lower than the one recorded for Portugal (70%).^[13] The average height of a residential building in Areeiro is 5.2 floors as of 2021^[14] and the average area of a dwelling stands at 106.16 m² (with the average in Lisbon-city 93.07 m² being and in Portugal 112.45 m²).^[15]

The average monthly rent value of leased dwellings recorded in 2021 stood at €601.87, 27.82% higher than the Lisbon average in the same year (€470.87).^[16] It is nonetheless important to notice that the value of the rents is quite low because of many contracts stipulated decades ago, with 13.38% (25.34% in Lisbon) of the dwellers paying less than €150/month^[17] because of the rent-freezing system that was adopted in Portugal in the late XX century, allowing that many people, now mostly elders, don't have to pay high rents.^[18][19][20] Due to the housing crisis and inflation, in 2023 the average rent for new contracts (frozen contracts aren't concerned) stood in fact at €13/m² in Areeiro, meaning that for the average 106.16 m² dwelling are necessary around €1,380/month.^{[21][22][23][24][25][26][27]}

Dealing with housing prices, it is interesting to remark that if the median price per m² stood at €1,803 for a house sold in early 2016, this value had risen to €3,559/m² in early 2021 and to €4,072/m² in 2023, experiencing a growth of +125.85% in just 7 years. In the same period the growth of house priced per m² in Lisbon as a whole was +117.6%, from €1,875/m² to €4,080/m².^[28]

Of the 1,377 residential buildings listed in the parish, 0.65% were built before 1919, 68.19% from 1919 to 1960, 22.95% from 1961 to 1990, 3.49% from 1991 to 2000 and 4.72% after 2001. Of the buildings built before 1919 55.56% had 1 to 3 floors, while in buildings built between 1981 and 2010 the proportion of buildings with 6 stories or more is 50.51%. Interestingly, the newer and higher the building the higher the probability of it being served by an elevator. For homes built before 1946, only 10.25% have access to an elevator as of 2021; this percentage ascends to 57.58% for buildings dating from 1981 to 2010.^[29] Always with regard to amenities, 25.61% of the houses had access to air conditioning (20.98% in Lisbon), 78.47% to heating (69.62% in Lisbon) and 23.88% to a parking place (28.04% in Lisbon).^[30][31][32]

As of 2021 there were 1,758 vacant dwelling in the parish.^[33] Of the vacant dwellings, 1,028 are vacant for rental or with the purpose of being sold, while 730 are vacant for other reasons, often abandoned, awaiting their demolition or because a reason for conflict among heirs.^{[34][35][36][37][38]} Moreover, as of 2023 247 apartments are registered as "Alojamento Local", meaning they have the license to be rent on platforms such as Booking.com or Airbnb.^[39][40]

In the parish there were no records of homeless people.^[41] The parish is nonetheless actively promoting initiatives aiming at helping people in situation of permanent of temporal homelessness.

Landmarks

• Alameda Dom Afonso Henriques
• Fonte Luminosa
• Caixa Geral de Depósitos headquarters
• Instituto Nacional de Estatística
• Praça de Londres

References