The “More Housing” program is now available for consultation, with “the main explanations” of each of the measures approved by the Government on Thursday, and “suggestions” can be made that will be evaluated by the executive, announced today the Ministry of Housing.
The Government sent today for public consultation, and until March 10, the program ‘More Housing’, approved last week in the Council of Ministers,” reads a statement from the office of the Minister of Housing, Marina Gonçalves.
According to the Ministry, the document can be consulted on the website and “contains for now the main explanations of each of the measures approved by the Government, in order to facilitate public participation by citizens.
“All citizens, organizations, entities, municipalities, among others, can thus submit suggestions, which the Government will evaluate at the time of final approval of this program in the Council of Ministers on March 16,” it is indicated.
The Minister of Housing has also convened, for March 03, the National Housing Council, where all entities of the sector have seats, “intending to hear each of the agents on the various measures presented,” is also referred in the note.
“The promotion of public housing policies should not be static, but rather assuming the need to create responses that adapt to the needs felt at each moment by the population, and on a national scale, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that everyone has access to decent housing and appropriate to the income and size of different households,” indicates the government on the ConsultaLEX portal, where the program “More Housing” is available for consultation.
Thus, says the executive, the new set of measures “part of a second strategy in the National Housing Program (NHP)”, corresponding to a “more immediate response”, and is intended to “complement the structural responses already included in the NHP to mitigate the recent economic impacts, with direct effect on access to housing.
The intervention plan now proposed aims to add “solutions and responses to the immediate needs of families” and contribute to the strengthening of the housing supply, it is stated.
On Thursday, the Prime Minister presented a package of measures, estimated at 900 million euros, to respond to the housing crisis in Portugal with five axes: increase the supply of properties used for housing purposes, simplify licensing processes, increase the number of houses on the rental market, combat speculation and protect families.
The More Housing program was approved by the Council of Ministers and will be under public discussion for a month. The proposals will return to the Council of Ministers for final approval on March 16, and then some measures will still have to go through Parliament.
Among the measures announced are changes in the lodging sector, including the decision that the issuing of new licenses “will be forbidden”, with the exception of rural lodging in inland municipalities, where they may boost the local economy.
The prime minister also said that the current local accommodation licenses “will be subject to reassessment in 2030” and, after that date, periodically, every five years.
Properties that remain in local accommodation will be required to pay a special contribution, with the revenue going to the Housing and Urban Rehabilitation Institute (IHRU) to finance housing policies.
Owners who remove their homes from local housing until the end of 2024 and place them on the rental housing market will be exempt from income tax on rents until 2030, as “compensation for the decrease in revenue they will have.
Another measure is that land or property authorized for commerce and services will be able to be used for construction or converted into housing without changing land use plans or licenses.
The change, according to the Prime Minister, can be made “without the need to change any land-use plan or license”.
