The 12th edition of Lisbon's Urban Rehabilitation Week kicked off this Tuesday. In front of a large audience, the Secretary of State for Housing, Patrícia Gonçalves Costa, emphasised the importance of the event ‘to talk about the city, because it is essential to have this moment to share knowledge for any decision-making. It was with this strategy of dialogue that Construir Portugal was designed, with the aim of consolidating a public housing policy’.
It's important that ‘we realise that a house alone can't solve any housing problem, the neighbourhood has to be part of the city and the habitat. This introduces the concept of dignity and that's what we're looking for,’ she emphasised, adding that Construir Portugal is based on multidisciplinary knowledge and all the players who interact on these issues.
‘Construir Portugal is here to unblock public supply and private investment and to get the housing engine running again’
The Secretary of State for Housing recalled that, in recent years, the sector has faced structural challenges: ‘the value of real estate has skyrocketed since 2015, costs have increased since 2020, there is a shortage of labour and many housing shortages. We have 1.5 million people in this situation and a middle class unable to access the private market, with a very different profile to the vulnerable class of a few years ago.’
In order to build a public housing policy, Patrícia Gonçalves Costa highlighted five fundamental axes. The first involves ‘removing regulatory blockages’, which includes reviewing the land use regime, the final decision on which will be taken ‘tomorrow’, and amending the RJIGT, which provides for ‘70 per cent of this construction as housing with a price limit and 30 per cent for the free market or related uses’. She also emphasised the importance of the revision of the RJUE, scheduled for the first quarter of the year, and the development of the Construction Code. ‘The execution project regulation, the structural Eurocodes, the seismic vulnerability reports, the national BIM strategy, among others, are being finalised,’ she said.
The second axis focuses on ‘mobilising public resources’, through partnerships to give new life to vacant state properties and transfers to municipalities. Strengthening the public response, the third axis, has been driven by the PRR and the 1st Right programme, with a recently approved exception regime.
Patrícia Gonçalves Costa also mentioned the creation of effective support instruments, such as the exemption from IMT and Stamp Duty, the revision of the Porta Jovem 65 programme and the strengthening of rental support. Finally, she emphasised that ‘no public policy should fail to be based on financial support’, stressing the ongoing work to reduce the VAT rate on construction - ‘we are working with the Ministry of Finance to bring about a reduction in VAT on housing for sale, within the European limits defined’.
New IFFRU will have an urban regeneration component
Among the measures under development, she revealed that ‘the new IFRRU 2030 is being prepared, which will have an urban rehabilitation, seismic reinforcement and affordable housing financing component’. The programme is being structured with the EIB to guarantee funding and will continue to finance urban rehabilitation actions for private buildings promoted by private individuals, cooperatives and the 3rd sector.
‘Together, we all need to be able to implement a sustainable public policy’
Patrícia Gonçalves Costa also emphasised that ‘housing has no silver bullet, it's a complex problem’, adding that ‘many policies have to converge in response to a public housing policy. All of Construir Portugal's proposals converge towards this end, especially strengthening supply. Everyone in their own vocation has a say in the operationalisation of these policies.’
The property sector ‘is essential for any city’
Speaking at the opening of the event, Carlos Moedas, the mayor of Lisbon, took stock of his three years as mayor of Lisbon, pointing out that ‘the investment made in housing was unique’ and that, despite the funding challenges, Lisbon managed to push ahead with an ambitious programme: ‘we signed 560 million for housing in Lisbon, with great effort, because the PRR was a mistake for mayors, because it's our treasury that has to put the money in first.’
‘Most of it wasn't new construction, but urban regeneration’
Carlos Moedas recalled that ‘we've had a decade with very little municipal construction. When they criticise the private sector, they should remember that the public sector has never set an example: 29 houses a year for the last 10 years. That's why the public sector can't give lessons to the private sector, because it hasn't delivered.’
The mayor said that ‘we have a problem that can't have a single solution, and that's what we've tried to do with the city: create more supply, not just through new construction, which takes several years. We also wanted to recover closed municipal housing and we currently hand over around 30 keys every fortnight. In the last three years, there have been 2,434 keys - that's the number of families whose lives we've changed. And most of it wasn't new construction, but urban regeneration: 1,800 dwellings that were closed and that we've restored.’
‘Housing is also the private sector’
The private sector ‘depends on one factor’, emphasised Carlos Moedas: ‘a local authority that works, that is effective and efficient. When we arrived three years ago, there were more than 3,000 cases at a standstill in the local authority. Since then, we've approved more than 10,000 dwellings, around 3,000 a year, a 20 per cent increase on the past.’
The mayor of Lisbon emphasised that there is enormous potential in the city. The Municipal Housing Charter reflects this potential: we analysed a series of projects that had been stalled for years, such as Vale de Santo António, with 2,400 homes in a project covering more than 60 hectares, Quinta do Ferro, which was completely abandoned, and Casal do Pinto. All of this is unlocking potential.