Luís Montenegro's government wants to repeal measures in the Mais Habitação program that it deems "erroneous". The government wants to change the rules for forced housing and rent freezes.
Government plans to amend the Mais Habitação law
The government has confirmed that it will repeal the measures of the Mais Habitação program that it considers "erroneous", including forced housing, as well as rent freezes and "penalizing measures" for local accommodation. Reaction to this has been swift, with landlords and tenants alike already expressing their positions.
Government program satisfies landlords but worries tenants
The government's program has been greeted differently by homeowners and tenants, the former expressing satisfaction with the measures adopted, while the latter criticize the "welfare policy".
The National Homeowners Association (OTP) welcomes the government's (PSD/CDS-PP) "respect" for private property, and says it is "available" to help "resolve the crisis and support the necessary reforms".
However, António Frias Marques, president of the ANP, stressed in statements to Lusa that the trust of lessors and owners "has been lost for a long time" and "must be" regained.
"There are a large number of unpaid rents", which have discouraged "the willingness to rent accommodation", he stressed.
The ANP supports the end of "administrative price controls", which benefit wealthy homeowners and "industry sharks" alike, and approves the introduction of VAT at 6% for all rehabilitation.
VAT increased to 6% for housing construction and renovation
The Government Program provides for the temporary application of VAT at the reduced rate of 6% for construction and rehabilitation work on housing intended for permanent residence, according to the document published today.
"Our real estate stock, mainly in older city districts, is in need of complete renovation," he notes.
Rent subsidies must be granted to tenants "without means", he agrees, stressing that "the burden of helping these classes cannot be transferred to the private sector; it is the central state and municipalities that must provide them with good housing".
As for what is not included in the Government's Mais Habitação Program, the ANP will fight for an end to the tax penalty for vacant properties and the additional Municipal Property Tax (IMI), which applies to assets in excess of 600,000 euros.
On the other hand, the Lisbon Tenants' Association (AIL) criticizes the Government Program for proposing "a policy of social assistance, through subsidies and compensation", warning that "it is the State Budget that will pay for the high rents".
The government must "find measures of a different nature, which stabilize and give credibility to the rental market", which means, "first and foremost, more construction and more availability of housing", in particular by putting "vacant properties into service", stresses AIL Secretary General António Machado, in statements to Lusa.
The Government Program "should be something more integrated, and that's not the case; we continue to have a set of isolated measures, which essentially don't solve the housing and rental problem", he believes.
In the document, the government declares that it does not believe "that the answer to the housing crisis lies in administrative price controls, rent freezes or limiting rents to very strict bands, ignoring the rules in force for everyone".
"If this is not the case, how can it be?" asks António Machado, arguing that "it can't work by chance, it has to work through concrete measures (...), market regulation, market control and, for example, staggered and progressive rental taxation, like income tax".
Real estate speculation is one of the serious problems of what's happening in housing," stresses the tenants' representative, reporting that what's happening is "non-renewal of contracts and the same players, on the same thing, make a new contract almost every year, with rent increases outside these limits."
However, the Government Program does not include any measures on this subject, so that "the savagery of the market remains in force", he criticizes, underlining the lack of control and regulation.
Local hospitality welcomes balanced program
The Association of Local Housing in Portugal (ALEP) believes that the Government Program provides a "balance" and guarantees "stability" for the sector, moving away from a "politicized discussion" on the housing crisis.
Recalling the campaign promises of the Democratic Alliance (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM), which won the March legislative elections, aimed at repealing the "most serious" measures of the Mais Habitação, ALEP president Eduardo Miranda stressed that the government program, known today, "is nothing more than the resumption" of negotiations with the various parties in the Assembly of the Republic.
"From this dialogue with the PSD came a proposal, which was an alternative to More Housing," he recalled, in statements to Lusa.
This proposal "not only repealed some of the most serious measures", but proposed "an alternative" that "gave a framework of stability" to the sector, allowing, at the same time, "a balance between local accommodation and housing in areas where pressure is greatest, with the issue of condominiums".
