“More Housing didn’t solve anything, on the contrary, house prices continue to rise”: Liberal Initiative wants to reverse Costa’s measures

Parliament votes this Wednesday on a series of IL measures to reverse the socialist package – an end to coercive leasing, an end to restrictions on Local Accommodation and tax reductions for builders and buyers are some of the proposed measures

Presented by the Government of António Costa with pomp and circumstance, the More Housing package was, at the time, criticized by the entire right wing of Parliament. It is not surprising that, two months after the elections, the first proposals to reverse the measures approved by the Socialist Party began to emerge. While the Government of Luís Montenegro is preparing its own package of measures in the area of ​​housing, this Wednesday, the Liberal Initiative (IL) brings to a vote in Parliament a series of proposals to reverse Mais Habitação – “first of all because the housing problem continues to need an urgent solution”, explains Mariana Leitão, deputy from IL, to CNN Portugal. “Mais Habitação has measures that are highly harmful, it did not solve anything, on the contrary, house prices continue to rise. Therefore, we argue that these measures must be reversed. Furthermore, we believe that our measures can help solve some problems, namely with the increase in supply in the housing market.”

Among the measures that IL would like to see revoked are coercive leasing and the obligation for telecommunications, gas, electricity and water companies to communicate to municipalities the absence of supply contracts or low consumption. But also some measures from the New Urban Leasing Regime (NRAU).

“Afterwards, Mais Habitação also had a series of measures focused on Local Rental that were highly persecutory and ended up annihilating this sector”, highlights Mariana Leitão. The Liberal Initiative considers that Local Accommodation was “one of the victims of the PS’s ideological prejudice and incapacity for vision and respect for property and private initiative”. “We are talking about a sector that, in addition to the contribution rate, had an increase in IMI”, explains the deputy. The IL also proposes the reinstatement of the rules for canceling the operation of local accommodation by condominiums and safeguards in transmissibility.

“In addition to reversing measures that end up being contrary to people’s interests and having an effect contrary to what is intended, we want, on the other hand, to propose measures that we believe will have a beneficial effect on the market – such as autonomous taxation of rents and the elimination of IMT when purchasing a house for housing, which is a value of up to thousands of euros and which people have to bear in mind when purchasing a house, which is a great difficulty. people”, explains Mariana Leitão.

Finally, the Liberal Initiative proposes the reduction of VAT in the construction area, as a way of encouraging the construction of more housing: “If there are more houses, prices tend to fall”, guarantees the liberal deputy.

Mariana Leitão also emphasizes that “there needs to be some stabilization of legislation, because instability discourages investment. If people think that at any moment the rules of the game are changed they will have less desire to invest, it is necessary to give a signal to people of that this legislation will not change with a change in Government”.

Government wants to “improve” Mais Habitação

“What we will do is improve what is necessary and maintain what is to be maintained. We are not going to tear up” Mais Habitação, said Miguel Pinto Luz, Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, during the CNN Portugal Summit last week, when he promised to present his housing package in “the next few weeks”.

The PSD agrees with the Liberal Initiative, for example, regarding the need to stop the “coercive repossession” of vacant houses and to revoke control over rent increases. As for Local Accommodation (AL), the minister also wants to “reverse” the measures of the previous Government, giving as an example how the sector has suffered with bans on new registrations. “What is different cannot be treated equally. The 40% of AL that exists in the Algarve is not the same problem that we have today in the center of Lisbon”, he highlighted, stating that the solution involves an approach that takes local authorities into account.

Among the Government’s priorities is, first and foremost, securing funds from the PRR – Recovery and Resilience Plan. “If we don’t meet the targets, we will lose the money”, said the minister, stating that this involves moving forward with “more than 50 thousand IHRU homes that are yet to be evaluated”. The PRR is also the only way to “act on both sides” – supply and demand. “On the demand side, we will impact fiscal policy. But if on the supply side there are no homes for young people, nothing will be done. We need to act on both sides and be able to achieve results with the PRR.”

“We think that the entire incentive model has to be changed, namely the tax route. That’s where we have to act in the first phase and then create layer after layer of pressure on the owner”, he clarified.

The minister acknowledged the “absolutely glaring issue” that housing is in the current context. For Pinto Luz, there is one solution: “We need to rehabilitate and build more”. “We are building very little compared to 20 years ago”, he observed, placing housing for the middle class and young people as a “priority”. And this can only be changed by acting on “four axes”: encouraging “own public construction”; resort to local authorities “as a way to get hold of assets”; “use private ones”; use “cooperatives”.

Will the right unite to reverse the PS measures?

The measures now presented by the Liberal Initiative were part of the party’s electoral program and many of them were already part of the “Housing Now” package, presented by IL in the Assembly of the Republic in the previous legislature. But this time, the party is more optimistic. “The PSD voted against Mais Habitação and at the time voted in favor of Habitação Agora”, recalls the deputy. “Furthermore, in its electoral program the PSD also proposes some of these measures, such as 6% VAT on construction. I believe that there has not been a change of point of view now that it is in the Government. Even if the Government wants to present other measures, I don’t see why they shouldn’t approve those in which they coincide.”

The same can be said in relation to Chega, which, in its electoral program, defended fiscal measures, such as the immediate revocation of the AIMI (Additional Tax on Municipal Properties), the abolition of the MT (Municipal Tax on Onerous Transfers of Properties) in the acquisition of permanent own housing and the obligation to pay IMI (Municipal Property Tax) when it comes to permanent own housing. Furthermore, Chega had also presented its “Housing with Confidence” package in February last year, with which it intended to “make a counterpoint to the Government’s program”, which “insists on coercively renting, expropriating, creating extraordinary contributions , aims to distribute housing at the expense of the trust of owners, the market and renters”.

“We have some expectation that at least some of the measures can be approved”, says Mariana Leitão. “And if they aren’t, it will also be interesting to understand why.”