Law designed to make “more land available” to combat country’s housing crisis
Within the next 30 days, Portugal’s government will present the first version of the revision of the land law in order to speed up responses to create more affordable housing.
Housing and Infrastructure minister Miguel Pinto Luz tells journalists: “It was our commitment on May 10 (when the Housing Strategy was presented) to revisit the land law. In the next 30 days we will present a first version for debate and dialogue. We have been in permanent dialogue between the Ministry of Cohesion and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing. We must have a proposal within 30 days”.
In Porto, with the Deputy Minister for Territorial Cohesion – taking part in a ceremony to sign the terms of responsibility for the construction and/ or rehabilitation of homes for vulnerable families – Miguel Pinto Luz said that the debate with local authorities, society and professional organisations is already underway.
On the sidelines of the session, it was the Deputy Minister for Territorial Cohesion, Castro Almeida, who gave more details.
“Our aim is to create better conditions so that there is more land available and to lower house prices, with a view to affordable and cost-controlled housing for people with greater needs (…).
“We’re going to try to remove legal obstacles so that we can increase the supply of construction. We’re not going to authorise building on floodbeds, that’s out of the question, there are areas that cannot be built on. But there are others that could be built on”, he explained.
Castro Almeida guaranteed that the final decision would be made by municipalities, and that it would be up to the government to adapt the legislation.
He repeated that ‘work is already being done’ and that ‘today’ he would be holding meetings with technicians and specialists from the North and Centre.
Recalling that “the housing problem has worsened considerably in recent years”, Castro Almeida pointed out that “today we build seven times less than we did 15 or 20 years ago (…) One way to lower the price and increase the supply of construction is to find more land to build on. We have to find a rigorous formula, a formula that doesn’t allow speculation or abuse, that allows local authorities to identify new land suitable for construction.”
After the government announced an investment of €328 million euros in Évora on Tuesday for the construction and/ or rehabilitation of 2,871 homes for vulnerable families, today it signed the terms of responsibility with municipalities in the North and Centre.
For the North, €185.2 million are earmarked for 1,459 homes, in a total of 40 municipalities, while for the Centre, €37.2 million are earmarked for 440 homes, in a total of 14 municipalities.
On Tuesday, two contracts were signed for the municipalities of Alentejo and Lezíria do Tejo, as well as the Algarve.
This funding comes under the Plan for Recovery and Resilience (PRR) – and, as Miguel Pinto Luz stressed, all projects must be completed by 2026, or the government will have to return it.
Regarding the revision of the land law, on the sidelines of the ceremony, president of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP), Luísa Salgueiro, said that municipalities are willing to collaborate “as long as they can comply with all applicable rules.
“We are willing to find more land to build on as long as scrupulous compliance with the law is guaranteed, because we are very scrutinised, particularly in this area of verifying planning and urbanism rules. We don’t want to take any risks”, she said.
Source material: LUSA
