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Hospital to Sell Properties With Existing Tenants
22 September 2018
The buyers will be required to maintain the existing rental contracts. A group of 10 flats in Arco da Graça will be the most significant asset on auction, with a base bid of €2.4 million.
The Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central (CHLC) will sell a set of properties in central Lisbon at an auction that will take place on September 27 at 3:30 pm in the Alto dos Moinhos Auditorium. Some of the buildings on the block have existing tenants, several of which are over 65 years of age and have indefinite contracts. Others are in poor condition or have been condemned.
“The stakeholders understand that any interested parties, when bidding and acquiring the properties subject to the auction, are fully aware of the characteristics, conditions, burdens and limitations of the properties in question,” the CHCL’s website states. The first clause of the sales agreement adds that the buyer is obligated to take over the property “without prejudice to any existing rental contracts,” that is, without prejudice to the tenant.
Tenants who are 65 years of age or older are protected by a law, which Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the President of the Republic, enacted in early July. The law suspended the eviction of senior citizens or the disabled until March 2019.
The remainder will have to reach an agreement with the new owners, since the law that guaranteed tenants’ right of preference, in cases where the entire property is sold, failed to pass. Existing tenants may, according to the CHLC, oppose a contract renewal which would transfer their agreement to the New Urban Rental Law (NRAU).
Where is the money going?
According to Francisco Matoso, who serves on the CHLC’s board of directors, “any funds deriving from the sale will be reinvested in equipment and construction works at the Hospital Center, according to an existing investment plan.”
The sale is part of a second phase of divestment and has “the proper authorisation from the local authority and the Ministry of Finance,” Mr Matoso stated.
The largest property on sale includes ten flats for 2.4 million euros. The apartments are located in a building on Rua do Arco da Graça. Except for two other properties, which each have minimum bids of 1.7 million euros, the remaining properties are all being sold for roughly half a million euros.
The assets include six flats at 13 Rua Leão de Oliveira for a base bid of 1.7 million euros; three flats at 11 Rua da Palmeira for a base bid of €1.7 million; and three flats at 28-30 Travessa do Terreiro a Santa Catarina for a base price of €450,000. The remaining properties include 75-81 Rua do Arco da Graça (€2.4 million) and a shop and an apartment with a base of €400,000 at nos. 83 to 85; and three flats 42 Travessa do Cabral (€340,000). There are also three flats with a base price of €410,000 at 11-13 Rua do Meio à Ajuda; a plot of land for €410,000 at 88 Rua do Século; and three lots with a minimum bid of €490,000 at 15-17 Largo da Ajuda.
Original Story: Jornal Nacional – Leonor Paiva Watson
Translation: Richard Turner