Thousands of homes remain empty in Santo Antão due to the island's long history of emigration

An island shaped by the departure of its people

A large share of the island's families have at least one member living abroad.

Houses shut for most of the year

These houses rarely come onto the rental or sales market.

Remittances that build but do not always house

Much of the building activity is financed by remittances with no intention of moving in straight away.

A challenge for municipal planning

This pattern makes it difficult to calculate real housing demand on the island.

A century of migration history

Emigration from Santo Antão to the Netherlands, the United States and Portugal goes back several generations and has shaped the family structure of much of the island. Many of these families maintain strong ties to their place of origin and return periodically on holiday. That relationship explains why so many homes remain shut rather than being sold.

Houses that rarely reach the market

Estate agents on the island agree that these shuttered homes almost never come up for sale or rent, even after years of disuse. Owners prefer to keep them as a link to the island rather than part with them, for sentimental reasons or a sense of family identity. This reluctance notably limits the real supply available to those seeking housing in Santo Antão.

Remittances that build without any immediate intention to live in

Much of the island's building activity is financed by remittances sent from abroad, often to build or extend the family home with no concrete plans to move in soon. This pattern produces finished or half-finished homes that remain shut for years. Local councils acknowledge that a large part of the island's housing stock follows this logic.

A challenge in calculating real demand

This build-up of shuttered housing makes it hard for municipal officials to accurately estimate how much housing the resident population actually needs. Some councils have proposed specific censuses of empty housing as a first step to tackling the problem. For now, there is no mechanism in place to encourage these closed homes to be put on the market.