The Minister of Housing says that PS is responsible for the lack of a public offer

The Socialist Party (PS), in power since 2015, has its share of responsibility for the lack of construction and supply of public housing, the housing minister acknowledges.

“We never said anything different. (…) Let’s go with a delay of decades. When we talk about a delay of decades, we should all be held responsible for what we have not done over time,” emphasizes Marina Gonçalves in an interview with Lusa.

The special resettlement program, created 30 years ago to eradicate slums in the areas of Lisbon and Porto, was “very important”, but “was still a temporary program, because it was for a specific need, the was for two metropolitan areas, and not for the country as a whole, and I did not have that vision of seeing housing as a pillar of the welfare state,” the minister emphasizes.

It is now necessary, he argues, “to look at housing as well as education and health” and to build “a universal policy”, stressing, however, that this is “a task that also needs time to become structurally integrated.” to materialize society”.

Portugal’s public housing stock is one of the lowest in Europe, at 2%, compared to the European average of 12%, compared to countries reaching 20% ​​and 30%, such as the Netherlands.

When Marina Gonçalves was Secretary of State (and Pedro Nuno Santos Minister of Infrastructure and Housing), the government announced the target to increase the stock of social housing from the current 2% to 5% in the coming years.

Ensuring that housing is “the top priority”, the now-minister emphasizes that building or rehabilitating does not happen “overnight” and “takes time, hence a short-term response”.

The More Housing program, approved by the Council of Ministers on March 30, includes measures such as the forced rental of vacant houses, the suspension of new local housing permits or the end of “golden” visas, meetings in the Assembly of the Republic to specialty discussion.

The diplomas referring to income support and interest subsidies on mortgage loans are already in effect, which the government was able to adopt without prior parliamentary consultation.

The programme, which was presented on February 16, is based on five axes: increasing the housing supply, simplifying permitting procedures, increasing the number of homes on the rental market, combating real estate speculation and supporting families.