Presenting the winning project to build 266 public housing units for affordable rent in Quinta da Baldaya, in the Lisbon parish of Benfica, António Costa said that it is “an example” of state intervention in housing policy, as it stems from the mobilization of vacant state property, with “a very large piece of land”, which for decades housed the National Veterinary Research Laboratory and which “has been deactivated for a long time and awaits occupancy”.
“On time, last September, this ideas competition was opened [para um projeto de habitação]precisely mobilize land belonging to the state to build social housing here that will strengthen the housing supply,” the head of the executive branch declared.
The Prime Minister stated that the state is responding “affirmatively” to the housing crisis, including the construction of houses, indicating that this “collective challenge” relies “to a large extent” on the partnership of municipalities, cooperatives and the private sector. sector.
The winner of the competition for the new residential complex at Quinta da Baldaya was the project of architect Paulo David’s company, but the public tender for the contract has yet to be launched.
According to the Institute for Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU), the promoter of the intervention, “the estimated value of the construction is 43.579 million euros + VAT [Imposto sobre Valor Acrescentado]the total investment of the IHRU in this operation is expected to be financed under the PRR [Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência]is about 51.8 million euros, including the value of the land”.
But, warned António Costa, “there will be no key available tomorrow to deliver the house”, as the construction of houses takes time, namely for the choice of the contractor, the approval of the Court of Auditors, the signing of the contract and the performance of the work.
“Time is something that does not exclude political will. There is the idea that political will has a magical effect, [mas] It does not have. Only political will allows us to start as soon as possible,” he warned.
As the presentation of the winning project for the construction of 266 homes in Quinta da Baldaya is “an important step”, the Prime Minister stressed that “there are many steps” to the allocation of houses to families and that everyone “should be aware of these steps”.
“If we want to have a structured response to the housing challenge, we will have to take these steps,” he stressed.
The official classified the PRR as “an extraordinary opportunity to be able to negotiate that community funds finance housing for the first time, as they have so far not financed housing investments”, because it was “possible to mobilize 2,700 million euros to implement until December 31, 2026 on housing policy”.
António Costa indicated that the PRR calendar is “really very tight”, saying that by that date, at the end of 2026, it is necessary to find “other instruments of a cyclical nature, of a provisional nature, to put at the service of all available housing stock of Portuguese families, because this is an essential condition for everyone to build their lives”.
In his speech, the Prime Minister also discussed the history of housing in Portugal, noting that “until the beginning of this century, the state had a very strong public housing policy to eradicate slums”.
“Nowadays the new generations have no idea what that means. In the city of Lisbon alone, 23,000 families have moved, who lived in shacks and who now happily live in decent housing. The state does,” the official recalled. .
From then on, it was agreed that between the fall in interest rates that made home loans accessible and the existence of “a remnant of the rent freeze” that made rents relatively cheap for families, “there was no need for a public housing policy and there was no public housing policy for decades,” stressed the prime minister, who praised the work begun in 2015 to establish a new generation of public housing policies.
The Minister of Housing, Marina Gonçalves, the President of the IHRU, Isabel Dias, the President of the Parish Council of Benfica, Ricardo Marques (PS), and the Housing Councilor of the Municipal Council were also present at the presentation of the project for Quinta da Baldaya, from Lisbon, Filipa Roseta (PSD).
Source: DN
