Project for the Mercado Time Out in Porto Approved

31 March 2020 Portugal’s General Directorate for Cultural Heritage (DGPC) has approved, subject to archaeological monitoring, the plan for the Time Out Market in São Bento, Porto. The project, for the south wing of the São Bento station, includes restaurants and bars.

In early 2018, the DGPC itself submitted the project’s Request for Prior Information (PIP) to UNESCO. UNESCO subsequently published an opinion stating that the 21-meter tower included in the designs for the site would be intrusive. Still, the DGPC nevertheless stressed that it considered the request as “consultative and non-binding.”

The Regional Directorate for Northern Culture (DRCN) and Infrastructures of Portugal (IP), the owners of the São Bento railway station, also revealed that they had issued favourable opinions for the Time Out project for that location.

Original Story: Jornal de Negócios / Lusa

Translation/Summary: Richard D. Turner

Lisbon City Council Delay Rental Payments for 24,000 Families

30 March 2020 The Lisbon City Council has announced that it will postpone rental payments for all municipally-owned homes until June 30th, in response to the health crisis. The measure would cover a total of 24,000 families and would defer payments on approximately five million euros in rents. After June, families will be able to pay the deferred rents over 18 months, with no interest or penalties.

Original Story: Economia Online / Lusa

Translation/Summary: Richard D. Turner

Porto City Council Approves New Affordable Housing

30 March 2020 The Porto City Council (CMP) has approved the construction of five apartment blocks in Lordelo do Ouro, Porto, including more than 300 flats for the affordable housing market. The city council will now hold three public tenders, and potential developers are to submit design proposals.

The proposals are to include work on urbanization, new public spaces, and landscaping. Ribeira da Granja will be rehabilitated, with the construction of new streets. The second and third public tenders will be for the five apartment buildings. The municipality expects to invest approximately 46 million euros in the project.

Original Story: Idealista

Translation/Summary: Richard D. Turner

Lisbon to Accelerate €620 Million in Public Investment

27 March 2020 Mayor Fernando Medina of Lisbon announced that the city would accelerate plans for public investment worth a total of 620 million euros. The figure corresponds to current and future public tenders, including many that were previously planned for the second semester of 2020.  in the first half of this year and also those scheduled for the second half.

The decision is aimed at mitigating the effects of the coronavirus. Possible investments include the construction of health centers, long-term care units, daycare centers, schools, housing, green infrastructure, public spaces, the sanitation system, mobility, and tourism.

Original Story: Diário Imobiliário

Translation/Summary: Richard D. Turner

Revive Grants Concessions for Two New Hotels

27 March 2020 The Portuguese government announced that it had granted a 50-year concession to rehabilitate and operate the Monastery of Lorvão in Penacova, which was founded in 878 shortly after the Christian reconquest of Coimbra. Imobimacus, a subsidiary of the Hotéis Turim Group, would the auction for the concession, its second, after taking over the Paço Real de Caxias, in Oeiras. The firm will invest approximately 6.9 million euros in redeveloping and converting the property into a hotel, paying €40,000/year in rent.

The Revive program also announced that it had granted another concession, this time to the Palace of Conde Dias Garcia, in São João da Madeira, to Hoti Star. Hoti agreed to pay an annual rent of 30,528.00 euros and will also rebuild and convert the property into a 4-star hotel, in an investment estimated at 4 million euros.” The Conde Dias Garcia was built at the end of the 19th century by António Dias Garcia.

Original Story: Dinheiro Vivo – Ana Laranjeiro

Translation/Summary: Richard D. Turner

Lisbon Has the Highest Rents in Portugal

27 March 2020 Portugal’s national statistics agency, the INE, reported that monthly average residential rental costs rose by 10.8% in the second semester of 2019 to reach 5.32 euros per square meter.

A total of 39 municipalities, mostly located in the Metropolitan Area of ​​Lisbon and the Algarve, posted rental costs that were above the national average. In Lisbon, the parishes of Misericórdia (14.49 euros/m2), Santo António (€14.25/m2), Estrela (€14/m2), Campo de Ourique (€13.98/m2), Santa Maria Maior (€13.90/m2) and Parque das Nações (€13.55s/m2) saw prices above 13.50 euros/m2.

In Porto, the Union of the parishes of Aldoar, Foz do Douro and Nevogilde registered the highest rental costs (€9.50/m2, while the parish of Campanhã posed the highest yearly increase (+21.8%). However, rents stood at just 7.54 euros/m2.

Original Story: Executive Digest – Ana Rita Rebelo

Translation/Summary: Richard D. Turner

Homes in Lisbon Worth 35% More Than the Average for Portugal

26 March 2020 Housing prices have increased dramatically in Portugal, but the extent of the rise has varied from region to region. Houses in Lisbon are worth an average of 35.3% more than the national average. Meanwhile, prices in the Alentejo are almost 40% below the average for Portugal.

According to a recent report by Portugal’s statistical agency, the INE, the average home in Lisbon costs 191,000 euros, compared to a national average of €140,900. Lisbon also accounted for the most significant share of home sales, with more than 62,500 transactions in Metropolitan ​​Lisbon in 2019, or 34% of the total. Furthermore, those transactions were nearly worth a combined 12 billion euros, or 46.6% of the total in Portugal.

The Alentejo is at the other end of the ranking, where the average home costs 85,000 euros, 39.9% below the national average. Sales of houses in the Alentejo totaled 955.5 million euros, less than 4% of the total in Portugal.

The Algarve, however, posted the fastest growth, at 10.5%, compared to just 3% in Lisbon, as the price of housing reached an average of 186,000 euros in the south of Portugal.

Original Story: Jornal de Negócios – Rafaela Burd Relvas

Translation/Summary: Richard D. Turner

Santander to Grant 6-Month Grace Period on Mortgage Payments

26 March 2020 Banco Santander in Portugal is following in the footsteps of the Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), moving ahead with a plan to grant a 6-month moratorium on mortgage and consumer lending payments. The bank also intends to give companies a 12-month grace-period on their debts.

The approximately 250,000 Portuguese families who have mortgages in good standing with Santander will be able to access the bank’s online platform to request an immediate grace period on their debt. The Spanish bank is awaiting the implementation of the necessary legal frameworks in Portugal, which would follow guidelines set by the European Central Bank. The moratorium would also apply to consumer debt.

At the same time, the bank will offer to renegotiate loans to small and medium-sized companies that are also currently in good standing. In this case, the financial institution will offer a grace period of up to twelve months.

Any offer of grace periods to individuals or companies would not affect the spread on their loans, nor incur other charges. Additionally, Santander stated that it is ready to provide three billion euros in the credit lines as soon as the Portuguese government approves that measure as well. The bank said that it is prepared to provide immediate capital injections to its corporate clients.

Original Story: Jornal de Negócios – Rita Atalaia

Translation/Summary: Richard D. Turner

Portugal Has the Lowest Number of New Housing in Europe

25 March 2020 A study published by the German Ifo Institute has noted that Portugal has the lowest average new housing construction rate per 1,000 inhabitants in Europe. The report, which analyzes 19 European countries, found an average of less than 1.5 new homes per thousand inhabitants in Portugal, compared to more than six in Finland, Austria, and Switzerland.

In Europe as a whole, an average of approximately four new homes is built per year, per 1,000 inhabitants. Portugal is at the bottom of the table, behind Spain and Italy. The study reads that “markets in Spain, Portugal, and Italy are moving slowly,” adding that “the growth rates… for the construction of new residential buildings in Spain, for example, should continue to slow down and eventually fall by 2% in 2022.” That forecast came before the current Covid-19 pandemic and its effect on the European economy. The Ifo Institute pointed towards such obstacles to growth as tighter environmental regulations, a lack of labor, and also a lack of land for development.

Original Story: Observador– Edgar Caetano

Translation/Summary: Richard D. Turner

Housing Prices Up By 21% in Portugal Since 2015

25 March 2020 The average price of a home in Portugal has risen by more than 20% over the last five years, to reach more than 140,000 euros. In total, more than 181,000 homes, totaling over 25.5 billion euros, sold over last year, according to a report by Portugal’s national statistical agency, the INE.

Price inflation, however, is now seen to be flattening, even without accounting for the current Covid-19 pandemic, while total housing sales rose by 6.3% to 25.583 billion euros, which represents a slight moderation.

Over those five years, however, total sales have more than doubled, rising from 12.5 billion euros in 2015 to €25.6 billion in 2019. At the same time, the number of transactions increased by a more modest 69.1% in the same period, from approximately €107,000 to €181,500.

Market watchers had been expecting sales to continue their moderating trend in 2020, though now the Covid-19 pandemic has thrown a wrench into those forecasts.  Sales this year are surely plummeting, as much of the world economy grinds to a halt due to restrictions put in place to contain the virus. Many experts believe, nevertheless, any decrease in prices will be erased once the market roars back to life.

Original Story: Jornal de Negócios

Translation/Summary: Richard D. Turner