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Lisbon to Invest €201 Million in Housing by 2021
4 October 2018
The Lisbon City Council will invest a total of 201 million euros in the construction and redevelopment of the municipality’s housing stock by 2021, Finance Councilor João Paulo Saraiva announced on Thursday.
The announcement was made at a press conference marking in the current municipal government’s first year in office, sponsored by the Citizens for Lisbon movement, which participates in the council.
According to Mr Saraiva, the investments will be financed by a loan that the European Investment Bank (EIB) granted to the city council.
Of the total amount of funds to be disbursed, the municipality will earmark €52 million for the construction of the housing under the auspices of the Accessible Rents Program (PRA) in Entrecampos. The council will also invest €25 million in the rehabilitation of the properties owned by the Social Security Administration, along with another 49 million euros for the construction of new buildings in the municipal housing districts.
52 million euros will be used to redevelop dwelling owned by Gebalis (a municipal-owned company that manages the housing districts in Lisbon), while it will invest 23 million euros in the redevelopment of housing owned by the municipality in areas throughout the city.
The municipality expects to invest 50 million euros this year, Mr Saraiva stated.
According to the councillor, in addition to these investments, lands with a taxable value of more than €300 million will be allocated to the PRA.
Housing councillor Paula Marques, who also took part in the press conference, said that “by the end of the year,” the Lisbon City Council will deliver 750 homes, including a hundred under the auspices of the program ” Inhabit the Historic Centre.”
The program includes a set of municipally owned properties that were set aside to help combat the effect of increasing real estate prices on the city’s inhabitants, caused by the urban rental law and the growth in tourism. Applications will begin in early March.
Applications for the allocation of affordable housing to residents in the parishes of Santa Maria Maior, Santo António, São Vicente and Misericórdia, in the historic centre of the city, are aimed specifically at residents with a proven risk of losing their housing.
According to Ms Marques, “650 families” are also subsidised through the Municipal Rent Allowance.
To help solve the housing crisis in the Portuguese capital, the councillor for Housing and Local Development argued that “we should impose a 25% quota for affordable housing.”
The mayor also stated that a “unified regulatory framework for access to affordable housing” will be created and that the council is “ceding much of the municipality’s property for housing needs” to “adapt to the current reality.”
Councilor Saraiva also noted that the lack of housing is a “very serious problem” in Lisbon and Porto, and that “the Government and the National Assembly must deal with it.”
To do so, the councillor argues that incentives must be given to lead property owners “place their properties on the housing in the market at affordable and non-speculative prices” to increase supply.
Comparing the municipality’s investment to that of the state, the councillor argued that “the municipality’s efforts are Herculean while those of the country are small.”
Original Story: Observador / Lusa
Photo: António Cotrim / Lusa
Translation: Richard Turner