Major municipalities in Lisbon and Porto have spent more than €29 million since 2016 on the purchase of 69 properties (between apartments and buildings) for affordable housing, under the pre-emptive right, a tool that allows municipalities to win over potential buyers during the first 10 days of the house is for sale. Given the shortage of apartments, municipal investments were only higher because the municipalities would have financial problems.
However, the pre-emptive right can only be activated in areas of recovery and urban pressure. In the latter case, this means that “there is significant difficulty in accessing housing, either because there is a shortage or inadequate supply of housing in relation to existing needs, or because that supply of housing has values higher than than what most households can bear without falling into overburdening of housing costs compared to their income,” said Decree-Law No. 67/2019 of May 21, which increases the municipal property tax with regard to vacant buildings in urban areas Busy.
Of the survey conducted by DN/Dinheiro Vivo among 20 municipalities in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto on the use of pre-emption rights to meet social housing needs, half responded, i.e. 10. And of those, six showed, namely Lisbon and Porto, to have activated this instrument. In total, since 2016, they have invested more than 29 million in the acquisition of 69 homes (between fractions and buildings). In all these municipalities, 17 thousand families are currently on the waiting list for access to affordable housing.
In the metropolitan area, Lisbon leads investments, within the scope of reference law. The municipality, chaired by the Social Democrat Carlos Moedas, estimates that this year it will spend 2.45 million euros on the purchase of six apartments, the process of which is “still in the process of visits and evaluation for a proposal for a final decision says the municipality. . These six properties will be integrated “into housing access programs, namely the Affordable Income Program,” the municipality clarifies. In the past five years, the municipality acquired “six properties with pre-emptive rights, but none for housing”, he pointed out, without referring to the costs involved. Lisbon also adds that “other forms of real estate acquisition intended to expand the supply of municipal housing are being considered”. According to the municipality, “approximately 6,500 applications have been registered, pending allocation of housing”, under the Guided Leasing Program.
The Câmara de Cascais, led by PSD/CDS coalition leader Carlos Carreiras, is the second municipality in Greater Lisbon to have invested the most in purchasing homes through pre-emption rights. An official source said that “between 2021 and 2022 a faction has been acquired”, and that the municipality is still “waiting for a parliamentary meeting for the deed of four factions and a house”. “Everything completed will cost a total of about 854,000 euros,” he says. As for the families on the waiting list, the municipality indicates that “the total number of validated housing applications for rehousing is 3186”.
In Sintra, Basílio Horta’s socialist executive this year acquired six apartments, under pre-emption, for assisted rental, in a global investment of 308,268 euros, with five processes still to be completed, the municipality said. Between 2018 and 2022, 26 fractions were purchased for the same purpose, but the municipality did not disclose the cost of this investment. It should be noted that the use of this instrument grew mainly in 2021 and 2022, when 10 and 12 homes were acquired respectively. “This instrument makes it possible to necessarily increase the supply of municipal housing faster than by building,” he justifies. Currently there are 1228 applications for affordable housing pending a response.
The municipality of Oeiras, led by Isaltino Morais, has also activated this mechanism. This year it bought three apartments for 220,000 euros for the “housing program for teachers and the youth housing program in historic centers”, the municipality signals. Between 2018 and 2022, the municipality used this tool to sell three other properties, but did not disclose the cost of this investment. “Currently, 949 families have been admitted for the allocation of housing on a rental basis,” the municipality revealed.
On the contrary, the socialist municipalities of Amadora and Loures have not used this instrument. The first, led by Carla Tavares, “did not make use of the pre-emptive right, because when consulting the properties to be traded, the market value largely exceeds their appraised value”, he justifies. Amadora currently has 345 applications for social housing. The Chamber of Loures, chaired by Ricardo Leão, also did not use the mechanism, but did not present any argument, referring only to “the current number of candidacies or requests for housing is 1385”.
Porto alone invested 19.2 million euros
In the Porto Metropolitan Area, Invicta is a pioneer in exercising pre-emption rights. The municipality led by Rui Moreira started buying properties under this instrument in October 2016 and had invested more than 19.2 million euros by the end of 2022, an official source reports. During this period, it acquired 38 multi-family buildings, a single-family house and cultural material (Teatro Sá da Bandeira), with the latter real estate absorbing 2.1 million of the amount invested.
In Vila Nova de Gaia, the city budget did not allow the use of this option. As the autarchy chaired by Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues reveals, it is only very recently that “pre-emption law began to be used, as previously there was no budgetary capacity or even a financial instrument to do so”. As he points out, this exercise “only became viable with the rise of the PRR [Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência]”, since “in most cases they are properties with high values, taking into account that they are part of urban rehabilitation areas or represent heritage of historical importance”.
Matosinhos also did not use this instrument to meet housing needs. The municipality led by Luísa Salgueiro acquired only two unfinished buildings “for reasons of safety, health and urban rehabilitation” in the area where they are located, in São Mamede de Infesta. The investment amounted to 6.1 million euros, with the rehabilitation project for the construction of 105 homes of type T1, T2 and T3 intended for assisted rental being estimated at approximately 12 million and will be financed from the PRR.
Lack of budget capacity
It is the resources from the PRR that ensure that municipalities can respond more quickly to the acute housing problems of their residents. Under 1st Right – a program to support the promotion of housing solutions for people living in degrading conditions who do not have the financial means to buy a house – Gaia went ahead with the purchase of 40 existing units, in an investment of more than five million euros. As an official source of the municipality of Gaia points out, the municipality is “going to market in the context of the various housing policies it has implemented, and is strongly strengthening through the local housing strategy”, to an estimated investment of more than 143 million in the acquisition, construction and rehabilitation of housing. One of the bets was to find affordable rental solutions. Work started last year and has already resulted in the completion of 25 homes, of which another 26 are expected by the end of this year. In this case, the investment was 6.6 million just in rehabilitation, of which 4.4 million came from the PRR. At the moment, Gaia has about 1100 families waiting for a housing solution.
At Invicta, Porto Vivo, SRU has also resorted to funding the 1st Law program to purchase property in need of intervention. An example is the Ilhas da Lomba project, where the construction of 47 homes is planned. To carry out this project, in 2022 Porto Vivo acquired an urban building with 28 houses and this year four buildings with 15 houses. There are still 26 homes to be renovated, some of which have already been purchased and others are under construction. The municipal company is also looking for habitable fractions on the market in order to compensate for the delays in drawing up projects and carrying out the works. Porto currently has 934 families on its land allocation list, a number that has remained stable over the past five years, he says. In this period, “more than 1900 homes were completed, an average of one home per day”. In Matosinhos, where there are 1593 housing applications, “the applications from the municipality for the 1º Direito/PRR program are taking place within the deadlines set,” says the municipality. So “there was no need to go to the market”.
The municipality of Vila Nova de Famalicão, which has not used the pre-emption right so far, has 62 million euros to invest over six years in improving the housing stock of the municipality, within the program of the first law. According to the municipality, this amount will “make it possible to improve the living conditions of more than 800 households”, and in the chamber headed by Mário Passos there are 88 applications for housing.
Dinheiro Vivo Journalists
Source: DN
