BPI CEO defends state housing construction plan and says banks “can participate”

“There is clearly a lack of housing in Portugal, and it is the supply that drives prices down”, defended João Pedro Oliveira e Costa, CEO of BPI, at the press conference to present the results. The BPI CEO also said that banks can participate in a program that may be created, he argued.

“The State has to create the conditions, it has to create the policies and speed up the processes, and then the economy will work and the banks will be available to finance these same constructions”, said the president of BPI, who defends the creation of “a large housing construction plan”.

It is necessary to keep young people and workers in Portugal through access to housing, he argued.

“One million people came to Portugal to live in the last decade”, said the CEO, citing public data, adding that “there is clearly a lack of housing for all the jobs that need to be created” and for young people, defended the banker.

The long approval times in the Chambers and licensing make real estate projects much more expensive, so, he argues, the State has to take the starting shot. “We have a golden opportunity to make new cities more sustainable”, he argued.

“Portugal needs to have decent and sustainable housing”, he added, recalling the data that shows that “there are 100 thousand houses missing in Portugal”.

The CEO recalled that “if we look, we see that 70% of families have their own homes and a large proportion of them used mortgage loans, because the rental market does not work”.

The plan he defends would have to result in cheaper housing, as, he said, we are granting a lot of credit “but it is for more expensive houses”, he noted.

“When I talk about what banks can support, I am aware that BPI has never had a problem with housing and construction credit, and it is important to understand the difference between construction credit for housing and credit for real estate development”, said João Pedro Oliveira and Costa.

In the past “there was a mix between builders who received credit and who were shareholders in the banks”, recalled the CEO of BPI.

“Housing construction must be industrial construction, and not piece by piece”, he argued.

Regarding the change of Government, João Pedro Oliveira said that “I don’t see that there is political instability at the moment” adding that “common sense will prevail” despite some political chaos. “We will have European elections that are important, which will certainly give a sign of stability”, he said.

The bank’s president defends the reduction of taxes, not only putting an end to the extraordinary contribution made by banks and the additional solidarity created during the pandemic for the sector, but also the reduction of taxes for families and companies.

The BPI CEO does not foresee that “there could be a shock with the drop in interest rates”. But the CEO believes that the ECB will start lowering interest rates, which will have a positive impact on the economy, families and companies.

The next ECB meeting to decide interest rates will take place on June 6th.

“We believe that profits in 2024 will be lower but eventually not as low as BPI predicted,” said the CEO.

Regarding savings certificates, the CEO said he did not have a concrete proposal. “It is not a product that I am going to distribute just because, yes, the bank would have to know the commercialization conditions”.

Regarding the sale of the stake in Banco Fomento Angola (BFA), he said that they maintain the selling position and have maintained a permanent dialogue with the largest shareholder, the state-owned Unitel (holder of 51.9% of BFA’s share capital).

The State announced that it wants to privatize a group of companies such as Unitel and participation in BFA, through listing on the stock exchange, which is very young.

BPI, which holds 48.1% of BFA’s share capital, stressed that “our position is, in principle, a seller’s position, and if there is a way to follow the IPO, we will analyze it, but we have to know the specific conditions”.