The government will replace the landlords, in case of non-compliance by the tenant for a period of three months, guaranteeing the payment of the rent to the landlord and the subsequent eviction – if applicable – of the tenant.
This is one of the measures announced by the Prime Minister this afternoon, at the end of a Council of Ministers devoted exclusively to housing. António Costa stressed that the “rent default rate is extremely small”, but that this is “a fear that lives in society” and in the market, arguing that “after three months of non-compliance, the state replaces the tenant in the payment of rents” and will be responsible for “collecting the amounts due”. Afterwards, you need to find out the reasons for the non-compliance: if they are related to a “socially acceptable” reason, the tenant can be supported or even moved.
In the context of the third axis of the five included in the “More housing” program, which aims to put more houses on the market, António Costa also argued that the state “proposes renting houses to owners” within normal prices, for a period of five years, provided that the right to sublease is granted” and advance payment of the rents for the following year.
Heavy hand for local accommodation
As part of the package of housing measures, the cabinet will also prohibit the issuance of new local housing permits, a generalized measure with the exception of a set of municipalities in the interior.
Flanked by Housing Minister Marina Gonçalves and Finance Minister Fernando Medina, António Costa also announced that current permits will be reviewed in 2030 and every five years thereafter. The local housing sector will also be subject to an extraordinary contribution that will flow back to the IHRU (Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation) to support housing policies.
On the other hand, local property owners who transfer real estate to traditional leasing will benefit from a zero tax on real estate income until 2030.
With the scarcity of houses on the market, causing rental prices to skyrocket, and with it the rise in interest rates on loans, the housing issue is increasingly on the government’s agenda. A sign of this was the autonomy in its own ministry, in January, after the departure of the government of Pedro Nuno Santos, who was responsible for Infrastructure, Transport and Housing. The new ministry was handed over to Marina Gonçalves, until then secretary of state for the sector.
The government has allocated approximately €2.7 billion from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) to support housing. Of this total, 1.311 million will be allocated to the 1st Law program, 859 million to affordable public housing, 48 million to rehabilitation of the IHRU (Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation) housing stock, and 159 million to government housing acquisition. .
Under the PRR, the government has committed to building or renovating homes for about 26,000 families without access to decent housing, but the number calculated in a 2018 study is already out of date. The universe of families living in precarious housing, which will be covered by this support, already exceeds 50 thousand.
Updated
Source: DN
