Government failing on important housing issues, say homeowners in Portugal

Portugal's National Association of Property Owners (ANP) considers that new measures announced by the government for housing do not cover the "truly important issues", emphasising that on urban renting "it seems that there is a lack of knowledge of the matter".

The Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, said that Portugal's new housing strategy, which includes a set of 30 measures, aims to "re-establish the confidence" of the Portuguese, unlike the previous government's programme, which "was still in the early stages and had already been condemned to failure".

For António Frias Marques, president of the ANP, the government statement released for the housing sector is silent on the "really important issues".

"The idea it gives is that in relation to urban renting, which is what concerns us most, there is a lack of knowledge of what is going on," he emphasised to the Lusa news agency. António Frias Marques pointed out that, with regard to rehabilitation work, "it is said that there is a reduction in VAT to the minimum rate of 6 per cent", stressing that the measure "already existed".

The president of the ANP also mentioned the government's desire to restore confidence in renting, with measures such as the "revocation of forced renting" or the "state guarantee and replacement as tenant".

"There has never been the administrative machine to make this work. With these measures, they're killing the dead," he emphasised.

Foto de Luis Quintero no Pexels

Marques considers there to be a lack of measures on the issue of old rents, from contracts prior to 1990, which continue to pay rent below 50 euros that should, for the president of the ANP, be transferred to the New Urban Lease Regime (NRAU), pointing out that the previous government didn't opt for this solution either.

"We're still like this, we still have around 200,000 rents of less than 50 euros," he emphasised.

The leader also pointed out that the measures announced by the government are silent on the additional municipal property tax (AIMI) and on vacant buildings, in all houses in urban rehabilitation areas (ARU).

"The whole of Lisbon is considered an urban regeneration area and there, whether it's a house or a shop, the owner is penalised brutally in terms of IMI. A shop that would have had to pay an IMI of 70 euros, as it has a penalty, will pay 700 euros," he emphasised.

"It's one of those things that it would be good if someone looked at, because Lisbon is full of empty shops, not because the owner wants them to be, but because there's really no one to rent them out," he added.

With regard to housing, António Frias Marques considers the "worsening of the vacancy rate to be very regrettable." "In Lisbon there are around 100,000 houses that are vacant, but they're in such a state that nobody goes inside and the owner is trying to find the money to do the work," he concluded.