Pinto Luz: “We are not going to destroy everything that the previous Government did” in housing – Housing

The Government is preparing a package of measures for housing that will be presented soon, hopefully during the month of May. Various areas will be covered, from leasing to construction, including the already announced end to forced leasing and restrictions on local accommodation, and the creation of new incentives, fiscal, but not only. However, the objective is not to “destroy” everything that was done by the previous Government, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing said this Thursday.

Miguel Pinto Luz was speaking at a conference promoted as part of the Real Estate Exhibition, taking place this week in Lisbon. “Don’t count on us to be Manichaean and to say that the previous Government did everything wrong. There are things they did well, things they did badly, there is also consensus”, declared the minister. “We are carrying out a serious analysis of what needs to change”, but “I am not looking to arrive and destroy everything that was done by the previous Government. We will do our part”, he stressed.

The minister did not want to reveal the measures they have in preparation, but listed the sectors in which he intends to act. The “Segment for young people”, of course, is the “public promotion of own housing”, placing State properties on the market that can be used as housing. The local authorities will be called, “as a way of taking assets that are far from Estamo”, the public company that manages the State’s real estate assets. Partnerships with private individuals should be privileged, as should housing cooperatives.

Regarding Estamo, Miguel Pinto Luz recalled that the Government’s organic law gave it shared supervision, between Finance and his own ministry. “This Government is willing to stop having pure balance sheet management, and to think about how to put its properties at the service of housing.” And the shared guardianship will bring “a vision of Finance and a vision of the use of assets”, he highlighted.

“We have to get the PRR working”

Miguel Pinto Luz recalled that one of the difficulties in terms of housing is the lack of supply, because “we are building very little”. And “where we will be able to achieve results in the next two years is in the Recovery and Resilience Plan [PRR]”, he defended.

And here there is an immediate concern, which is the delays at the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU), which is responsible for approving applications presented by local authorities for the construction of public housing under the First Right program with PRR funds. “We have more than 7,000 candidates to be approved by the IHRU and only 200 were approved. The IHRU was not prepared,” said the minister.

The Government is therefore preparing to “strengthen the IHRU” so that applications begin to be released, since without this the local authorities cannot move forward with construction. “We have to get the PRR up and running under penalty of losing that money”, warned Miguel Pinto Luz.

Local accommodation? “Treat differently what is different”

As is, moreover, foreseen in the Government’s program, the Executive will review the Local Accommodation rules, particularly with regard to the suspension of new registrations.

“We actually want to reverse” some measures, in order to ensure “the predictability of those who invested” and because “the right to property must take precedence”. However, the minister stressed, “what is different cannot be treated equally.”

In the Algarve, where 40% of AL is located, “we have entire developments that were created just for AL”, but “the previous law treated everyone equally”, and “in the Algarve you don’t have the same problem as in Lisbon or Castelo White”. And, here, “mayors know their territory better and this is fundamental” and will be taken into account in the new rules that the Government intends to implement.