At the end of the long press conference to present the “More housing” program, António Costa promised that the government will pay attention to “critiques and proposals” about the plan. There they are and they are not slippery. “Ideological blindness”, “hatred of private property”, proposals with “enormous risks”, “state centralism”. With extreme positions between the two sides of the housing market – renters and owners – the Minister of the Economy, António Costa Silva, came yesterday to ensure that the Government “always has the humility to acknowledge” whether the effective application of the measures is working or not and to “calibrate and adjust” if necessary.
For owners, the government caused “chaos” with the measures announced on Thursday and “practically killed the housing market in Portugal”. “These measures seem to come from Venezuela,” says Luís Menezes Leitão, president of the Lisbon Owners’ Association (ALP), which mainly focuses on two proposals: the forced renting of vacant homes and the curbing of rising rents. Measures that “caused panic among the owners”, he tells DN, referring to the example of immigrants who have a home in Portugal. Menezes Leitão says he has already met with the International Union of European Owners, with a clear conclusion: “Everyone told me that there is no country that has these measures”. The president of the ALP accuses the government of “ideological blindness” and of “a deep hatred of private property”, recalling that “the private sector accounts for 98% of the housing sector in Portugal”. What makes the government’s announcement “disastrous”: “people are very scared”.
On the other hand, tenants respond with pleasure to the management’s series of proposals and are now asking for “strength” to implement them, given the many criticisms that have been heard. “The houses have a very important social function, they cannot be closed. In Lisbon, almost 50 thousand houses are empty, in the metropolitan area of Lisbon there are 150 thousand, in the country there are 725 thousand”says Romão Lavadinho. For the president of the Associação dos Inquilinos Lisbonenses (AIL), the right to property is not at stake: “Nobody is going to take someone’s property, and I don’t agree with that either”. Those who say otherwise “focus only on the financial issue and forget that the social component of housing is very important”.
Although there is no criticism of the program announced by the government, the Association of Tenants from Lisbon has put forward proposals to defend that two relevant measures are missing from the executive’s plan: the “repeal of the Cristas law” and the enactment of a quota of houses. for affordable rent (“minimum 10%”) in new construction.
Mayors were not heard
The measures announced by the government also promise to sow divisions among mayors. Carlos Moedas, mayor of Lisbon, yesterday described as “very serious” that the government has not consulted the local authorities, who will be responsible for some of the announced measures. “Housing is one of the biggest national challenges, but it is a challenge that must go through action with local authorities. Now the government has not consulted or listened to local authorities – certainly not those in Lisbon – and, therefore, it is very strange to see this whole package of measures without having been consulted by the mayors and in particular by the city of Lisbon”, the Social Democratic mayor insisted, defending that “state centralism” does not solve people’s problems. “We cannot allow people to enter the administration of our territory without consulting us, we think this is very serious,” Moedas said, reiterating that “it is not normal that the Lisbon Chamber has not been heard”.
The problem of not hearing the municipalities in this process promises to be extended to the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP). Yesterday, Luísa Salgueiro, a socialist who chairs the ANMP, praised the package of measures announced by the executive in statements to the Lusa bureau. Referring in particular to the proposals for local accommodation – a sector in which there will be no new permits and current ones will be reassessed in 2030 – Luísa Salgueiro claimed that “those who have made investments in local accommodation have their rights safeguarded” , but it also needs the “country to say that not local housing should be a priority, but that conditions should be created for people from the cities themselves to be able to stay there”. “We are driving people out of the cities,” said the mayor of Matosinhosanticipating “some conflict” around the measures presented.
Helder Sousa Silva, ANMP vice president and leader of the Social Democratic Mayors (ASD) has a different perspective. Starting with criticism that the ANMP “was not heard in this process, nor the individual mayors”, which he qualifies as a “disrespect” for local elected officials. Regarding the content of the plan, the also mayor of Mafra has a long list of criticisms, from the ban on new local housing permits, which “does not take into account the specific reality of each municipality”, to the “absence of targeted measures for young people “, for renting or buying a house.
The mayor also leaves a warning about a measure that has been welcomed with applause: the simplification of urban planning permits, which is no longer subject to prior municipal valuation, with municipalities granting the permit on the basis of a term of responsibility signed by the designers.“We all want fast licenses, but turn this into a simple total… This measure can be a huge riskI recommend the utmost care,” says Helder Sousa Silva, emphasizing that in these circumstances, the identification of errors will lead to embargoes and eventually to the demolition of the buildings.
The President of the Republic yesterday also commented on the program announced by the government, comparing it to a… “melon”. The President of the Republic insisted still “it is not possible to have a clear idea of what is inside” – “People always say that you only know if the melon is good after opening it. You have to open the melon”. The head of state guaranteed that he would do this, law by law, once the proposals of the executive are known.
Source: DN
