The government wants the private sector to rent out the vacant properties, the PSD opposes the possibility of the local authorities taking possession of the vacant properties… from the state. This is one of the most important measures in a package of ten diplomas to promote access to housing that the PSD presented at the Assembly of the Republic. A series of proposals aimed at creating a “shock” on the supply sidewith a parliamentary discussion scheduled for March 15.
Like the Executive, the PSD wants to respond to the vacant housing stock, but without targeting the private sector. “It is immoral for the state to throw the hot potato at others” when it has “thousands of vacant properties”, emphasized António Leitão Amaro, vice president of the PSD bank, at a press conference. The Social Democrats’ proposal provides for cooperation agreements between the central state and municipal public entities (which can be intermunicipalities, municipalities or parishes with more than 10,000 inhabitants), leaving it to them to promote vacant or underused public properties on their territory. identify. . Once this identification has been made, it is then up to the municipalities – themselves or in collaboration with private individuals – to proceed with housing projects for the buildings, which can only be rejected by the State in a limited number of situations. The works are carried out under the responsibility of the municipality, with resources from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), whereby the property remains in the possession of the municipalities for a maximum period of 50 years.
One of the measures proposed by the PSD is also the creation of a rent subsidy, available to households with an income up to the sixth rung of the IRS (about 38 thousand euros) and facing an effort tax, when paying the income equal to or greater than 33%. The value of the subsidy – a way of correcting the “gross historical error”, in the words of Leitão Amaro, of never having applied the legally stipulated rent subsidy since 2012 – could amount to a quarter of the value of the rent. Or even a third, in the case of young people up to the age of 35. Another measure specifically aimed at young people concerns state aid for the purchase of their first home, through a government guarantee that replaces the requested down payment on bank loans, corresponding to 10% of the total purchase price. A proposal similar to the one put forward by Carlos Moedas in Lisbon (and rejected by the opposition), with the same maximum limit of 250 thousand euros.
On the same day that the PSD presented the package of proposals for the housing sector, Carlos Moedas also returned to the subject, urging the state to “lead by example” before demanding that the private sector put vacant homes on the market. to take. “I am 52 years old and I cannot remember such a radical proposal from a political point of view. Such a radical invasion of the realm of what is private property and without further ado proclaiming the end of local housing. These impositions and these prohibitions can get us nowhere.” said the social democratic leader and mayor of Lisbon, quoted by Lusa, at the conclusion of the conference “More housing – Protection, regulation or brake” organized by the Economic magazine and with New weekly magazine. “The State is coming to say that we are going to force the private sector to rent their vacant properties, but the municipal authorities and the State itself are not renting theirs,” Moedas criticized.
Source: DN
