Socialists focus on Portugal’s desperate need for affordable housing
PS secretary-general Pedro Nuno Santos today proposed that part of the dividends from state bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos be channeled into a state current account that would allow local authorities to finance the construction of homes, which he dubs “the main national problem”.
Santos defended this idea at the opening of the sectoral session on housing that marks the start of the process for updating the PS electoral ‘programme’ for the early elections scheduled in May.
“We think it is a good idea for part of the dividends from Caixa Geral de Depósitos to feed a current account in the state that allows our local authorities to access financing to move forward with housing projects,” he said.
“The State has this capacity, the country has this need” and there are local authorities in Portugal “with great capacity, dynamism and initiative” to, with resources, “be able to build housing for the population with intermediate incomes”.
Santos said that, following the CGD’s 2024 results, the bank distributed 50% of its net profit to the state, in a year in which it made a profit of around €1.6 billion – a large part of which was income from housing.
Now, he wants to hear from former government officials and experts in this area, he said, to add proposals to the PS focus on “the main national problem”.
“There is no silver bullet when it comes to housing and we have to resort to all possible solutions. Public construction and/ or the rehabilitation of public properties must be scaled up significantly”, he said, considering that the “state has an obligation to scale up public construction”.
In former Socialist governments, Pedro Nuno Santos was responsible for the housing portfolio, thus it does need to be asked why more wasn’t done then. Today, he has accused the current social democrat government of having adopted housing measures that “ended up worsening the problem”, criticising the consequences of the IMT exemption measure that has ended up leaving the “majority of young people” even “further away from getting a house”.
In the PS secretary-general’s mindset, his party does “not rule out the need to regulate the housing market (…) there is a whole debate in Portugal that needs to be held”, he said, stressing that housing is currently sought as a financial asset and not just as a place for people to live in.
“Transnational demand has very severe consequences on the price and exclusion of many Portuguese people from access to housing”, he added. The subject is controversial, but the debate must go forwards, he believes.
“We have no doubt that we need more homes on the market. This can be done through regulation and the mobilisation of countless vacant homes,” he said – does this last comment refer to failed policies and plans of the previous administration to ‘take over’ empty properties? We will no doubt find out as the election campaign gets underway. ND
Source material: Lusa
