“In the last decade there has been an 85% reduction in the production supply of new homes in Portugal: out of every ten sold, nine are used”

José Cardoso Botelho believes that the future of the real estate sector depends on technology and industrialization. “We will have to innovate in the construction of buildings, use materials with less impact”, says the CEO of Vanguard Properties, reinforcing that by 2025 they will invest 50 million euros in Kozowood, an industrial unit located in Esposende, with the capacity to build wooden structures , thus boosting the construction of this type of houses in Portugal. And anyone who still believes in the story of the three little pigs, where a simple blow from the big bad wolf would cause houses that weren’t built in brick to collapse, will be mistaken. José Cardoso Botelho confirms: “This type of construction that uses Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) is very robust. We can build any type of building.”

But is sustainable construction just a privilege for the richest? The CEO of Vanguard Properties says no. Currently, the cost of erecting a sustainable building costs 5% or 6% more compared to traditional constructions, however, with industrialization the margins will tend to get closer. However, the truth is that there is no other way forward. This is because, on the one hand, the CO2 issue will be factored into the price of assets and, on the other, there is a lack of labor in the construction sector. “We have few construction companies. A large part of the good companies disappeared after 2008.”

Despite being at the helm of a profitable company, José Cardoso Botelho never stops pointing the finger, saying that the construction sector in Portugal has a lot of legislation and heavy taxes. “VAT is not deductible and IMI is only applied to residential land, which is nonsense. So it’s another way to raise revenue.” He also regrets that there is no investment in housing rental, namely giving long-term financing incentives to construction companies, as is the case with the Vanguard Properties group, in Switzerland, for example, where they manage around 52 thousand homes. In his opinion, if Portugal wants to grow, the housing stock will have to resort to Pension Funds, since the banks do not finance this type of investment and, for this, “it is necessary to create the conditions to attract this type of funds which, contrary to popular belief, are not speculative”.

Regarding the increase in construction costs, which last year was around 18% according to the Investment Property Survey by Confidencial Imobiliário, the CEO of Vanguard Properties states that the effective construction cost of a house in Portugal is higher than the average purchasing power of a Portuguese. He also states that there are no more houses in Portugal, because the majority are not in a position to be rented or sold and because there is not enough investment to recover the cities: “We need foreign investment”.