Rui Moreira and Isaltino Morais, presidents of two of the country’s largest chambers (Porto and Oeiras), defend the importance of creating more public housing to help a portion of the population that cannot find a home
There is “a trench” of the population whose economic difficulties do not allow them to find a home. This is said by Rui Moreira, the president of the Porto City Council, who argues that political power should create more public housing and “not interfere in the rest”.
“There is a huge problem: there is a segment of the population that found a solution on the market and today cannot. It’s middle class”, said the mayor of Porto, at Portugal Habita, the CNN Portugal Summit within the scope of SIL (Lisbon Real Estate Show). “We have a problem, which the richest people who already have a house have already solved. Then there are the most disadvantaged – who in Porto are having their problem more or less resolved. And then there is a trench with economic difficulties in finding housing.”
For Rui Moreira, the solution involves greater investment by the State in the creation of public housing. “We need more public housing and not interfere with the rest, not mess with the market. Whenever attempts have been made to freeze rents, it has gone wrong, it is an ideological issue”, he warns.
Isaltino Morais, president of the Chamber of Oeiras and panel partner, is also a great defender of public housing. “The problem of public housing is crucial to solving the problems of families who need houses – the poorest and the lower middle class, but also to regulate the market”, he says.
Isaltino Morais also leaves a warning: the housing situation in the country “will not be reversed”. On the contrary: “in the coming years the price of houses in Portugal will continue to rise exponentially”. “I’ve been saying since 2011 that we’re going to have stalls in big cities. The tents are already there and the municipalities do not have the authority they had 20 or 30 years ago”, he guarantees.
There was still time to address the António Costa Government’s More Housing package, which, according to Rui Moreira, was “covered in ideological paper that has to be removed”. “It seems like landlords are public enemy number one and that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Everything that was done was to say that the owner will have to have a social responsibility to provide housing. If we go that way, we won’t have a market,” he said, alluding to the Salazarist regime, in which the owner “can’t use the asset as he wants.”
For Isaltino Morais, Mais Habitação has “good things, bad things and pure demagogy”. An example of the latter saying that it was the coercive repentance presented by the Government as part of the solution to face the housing crisis: “It was seen that it was a measure to fill the eyes. The measures in relation to leasing only created instability”.
