Lisbon City Council advances with affordable housing construction program by cooperatives

Families will be able to organize themselves into cooperatives and collectively undertake the construction of affordable housing in Lisbon, on land provided by the Municipality. The Lisbon City Council approved, at a meeting in February, the proposal that gives shape and form to the new program “Cooperatives 1st Housing Lisbon”which reinforces the city’s housing strategy.

Through this model, the The municipality will provide land to cooperatives that are interested, and that provide the necessary financing, to carry out the construction of housing. The Chamber deals with architectural projects and licensing; cooperatives build. There are already five lands identified in Lisbon for cooperative housing projects: one in Lumiar, next to the José Alvalade Stadium; another in Benfica, close to the train station; a third party in Arroios, in Largo do Cabeço da Bola, where an affordable housing project was planned in partnership with a private developer; a room in Saint Vincent, near Rua do Vale de Santo António; and a fifth in Saint Claranext to Calçada de Carriche and the Estrada do Desvio cycling axis.

These five plots of land are mapped in the Lisbon Municipal Housing Charter, with some already having architectural projects underway. Find out about five planned operations:

Location	Summary	state
Lumiar	– 18 rooms: five T1, nine T2 and four T3; – 22 places basement parking; – €3.83 million of the cooperative’s total investment; – 213 thousand € average charge per dwelling (T1 at €146 thousand, T2 at €216 thousand, T3 at €289 thousand); – 3 163 mtwo gross construction area: 1,678 mtwo of housing, 459 mtwo of commerce and social project, 1,026 mtwo of parking.	Draft under review
Benfica	– 12 rooms: six T2 and six T3; – 11 places basement parking; – €2.60 million of the cooperative’s total investment; – €217 thousand average charge per dwelling (T2 at €192,644, T3 at €241,486); – 2 127 mtwo gross construction area: 1,483 mtwo of housing, 96 mtwo of commerce, 548 mtwo parking space, 91 mtwo of public space.	Previous study under review
Arroios	– 15 rooms: three T1, eight T2 and four T3; – no parking in the basement; – €3.31 million of the cooperative’s total investment; – €220 thousand average charge per dwelling (T1 at €136,024, T2 at €221,695, T3 at €303,488); – 1,736 mtwo gross construction area: 1,691 mtwo of housing, 45 mtwo of commerce, 779 mtwo of public space.	Preliminary study underway
Saint Vincent	– 21 rooms; – €4.09 million of the cooperative’s total investment; – €195 thousand average charge per dwelling; – 1,086 mtwo gross construction area: 1,016 mtwo of housing, 70 mtwo of commerce.	Design competition underway
Saint Clara	– 23 rooms; – 4.43 million euros of the cooperative’s total investment; – 193 thousand euros average charge per dwelling; – 2 807 mtwo gross construction area: 2,707 mtwo of housing, 100 mtwo of commerce.	Design competition underway

Lumiar project is the most advanced

Of these five, the most advanced operation is from Lumiar, which already has an architectural project. The building is planned for a plot of land where, in 1907, the first football field of Sporting Clube de Portugal was inaugurated and which, today, is a urban void near Rua Francisco Stromp, where you park informally. They are planned 18 rooms, between T1 and T3, with the estimated average cost per dwelling being 213 thousand euros. In total, the cooperative will have to invest 3.83 million euros.

The architectural proposal was prepared by a team formed by architects Patrícia Rocha Leite and Jorge Castro Trigo and the A400 studio, and selected at the beginning of 2023 through a public design competition, launched by the municipality a year earlier. It stood out from its competitors due to “focus placed on collective housing and the requalification of public space as a fundamental contribution to the dynamization of the neighborhood”and for presenting a solution with “generous areas dedicated to community areas and shared services, encouraging social coexistence”as can be seen in the jury’s final report. “The orientation of the rooms to the east and the rooms to the west makes adequate use of the sun exposure and the organization of the fires is quite effective”points out the jury, also showing “the design of the kitchen with natural lighting and ventilation, the visual relationship with the outside gallery and the possibility of individualizing this compartment”.

The architectural trio’s project responds to a series of requests and demands from Lisbon City Council, described in the preliminary program, such as the building having at least four floors, underground parking, energy efficiency and the durability of materials, the solution encourage neighborhood habits and community life, or there is an area on the ground floor intended for the implementation of a social project created by the cooperators and residents of the building. A T1 in this building will cost around 146 thousand euros, a T2 at 216 thousand and a T3 should cost 289 thousand euros.

How the program works

The model proposed in the “Cooperativas 1ª Habitação Lisboa” program gives the opportunity for families to participate or organize themselves in cooperatives to compete for municipal land, with surface rights for 90 yearsand thus have access to their homes, assuming little more than the construction costs. Cooperatives that apply and are selected in each operation (which, for now, will be five) will be able to immediately begin construction of the buildings, with all the obligations and risks inherent to this process, including supervision and management, on their side. of the work. The Lisbon City Council only assumes the costs of architectural projects and licensing, removing this financial burden from cooperatives and seeking to guarantee a considerable reduction in the execution time of works.

The empty land that was identified for this program allows the implementation of small-scale housing projects, since cooperatives will never be able to secure large investments, unlike large private developers. Each cooperative must ensure the necessary financing to carry out the projects, whether through savings from its members, the taking out of bank credit or specific financing lines for cooperative housing projects. On the other hand, cooperators who are allocated housing within this program must meet the same requirements as the Accessible Income Program (PRA), that is, not earn more than 30 thousand euros per year, in the individual case, or 40 thousand euros , if it is a household of two people (five thousand euros will be added for each child).

At any time, a resident of one of these cooperative housing buildings may leave and pass their home into the hands of another person, in which case, the cooperative first and the Chamber second will always have the right of preference, and the value of this transmission cannot exceed the amount, adjusted for inflation, that the cooperator initially paid for the house.

“Housing is and will continue to be the main priority of our mandate. There has never been a comparable amount of investment in this area in the history of the Lisbon City Council and it will reach 800 million euros by 2028. We have done everything to also look for new paths and solutions to respond to the problem”highlights in a statement the Mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, about the approval of the cooperative housing program. “This is another path we want to take to increase the supply of affordable housing in the city. The first step has been taken and will advance in the parish of Lumiar.” The municipality is already preparing the parts of the tender procedure to be launched with a view to carrying out the operation in the vicinity of Rua Francisco Stromp.