The President of the Republic promised on Thursday to urgently assess the government’s new measures for the housing sector, reiterating that he views the idea of temporarily reducing and stabilizing mortgage costs as positive.
‘I will appreciate them with the urgency justified by the social objective, which is to mitigate, as they now say, that is to say, to minimize the effects. [da subida dos juros]who have been very, very strong in the lives of families,” stated Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in response to journalists in New York.
The Head of State emphasized that he is not yet familiar with the legislation approved today by the Council of Ministers, but reiterated that the idea of deferring part of the interest on housing loans for a certain period seems “positive”, “for which it is expected that this will overcome the crisis.”
“But from what I read in the Council of Ministers, there are more measures regarding the terms of new contracts. Only by examining them, of course, can I comment,” the President of the Republic emphasized.
The Council of Ministers today approved a legal decree establishing an exceptional temporary fixing measure that “makes it possible to reduce and stabilize the installments paid by mortgage borrowers for a period of two years”.
According to the statement of the Council of Ministers, “borrowers of credit contracts for the acquisition or construction of permanent owner-occupied housing, as well as work on permanent owner-occupied housing, guaranteed by a mortgage (with variable interest rates) will now be able to determine the revision of the repayment , whereby the respective value is determined at the value resulting from the application of the index and corresponding to 70% of the Euribor at 6 months, plus the contractually provided ‘spread’, with the other conditions of the credit contract remaining unchanged”.
According to the government, “the difference between the installment that would have been due under the terms of the contract and the installment resulting from the now scheduled determination will be paid later and may be written off in advance, without any commission or costs to the borrower.”
At today’s meeting of the Council of Ministers another legal decree was approved “which broadens the scope and simplifies the requirements for access to aid for the provision of credit contracts”, reads the statement.
Source: DN
