The State will rent houses in 16 municipalities, including Lisbon and Porto, and then sublet them to families and young people in situations of greater housing vulnerability, an official source confirmed today.
The information, advanced today by Dinheiro Vivo, was confirmed to Lusa by a source from the office of the Minister of Housing, before Marina Gonçalves officially presented the measure of the Rent to Sublet Program (PAS), in a ceremony that took place at the Thalia Theater in Lisbon this morning.
The 16 municipalities are Amadora, Cascais, Ílhavo, Lisboa, Marinha Grande, Oeiras, Portimão, Porto, Silves, Sintra, Tavira, Torres Novas, Vila do Bispo, Vila Franca de Xira, Vila Nova de Famalicão and Vila Nova de Gaia.
The same source said that the affordable rents are in a range between 250 and 900 euros per month (with the State paying between 400 and 2,200 euros to the owners).
The Government will launch a total of 320 rental contracts, opening a tender that will give preference to young people under 35, single parents and households with an income drop of more than 20%.
The PAS involves the third sector (Santa Casa da Misericórdia) and the private sector (citizens, companies, associations) and has a cost of 28.8 million until 2030.
At the presentation session of the program, which was also attended by the Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security, Ana Mendes Godinho, the president of the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU) highlighted the “collaboration and cooperation between various entities” to “build solid public policies”.
António Leitão also stressed that IHRU is promoting public housing, taking advantage of “the heritage that is vacant, vacant, without occupation”, recalling that “the State did not have this direct intervention”, of building public housing, “for more than 40 years”. Therefore, he says, “a silent revolution is underway”.
The President of Estamo presented the PAS platform and simulator.
The PAS is “a starting point” and aims to attract “many more people to the program”, stressed António Furtado, noting the “strong mobilization of the real estate market”.
Landlords’ leases with the state have a minimum duration of three years (although the government stresses that at least five is desirable) and a maximum of 30 years.
The State can pay the rent monthly or annually, with the first option guaranteeing the payment of two advance rents and the income from these contracts not being taxed.
The Rent to Sublet Program is part of the Government’s package of measures to combat the housing crisis.
In order to increase supply in the rental market, the State proposes to rent vacant houses to private individuals and then sublet them.
The rent paid to the landlord will have tax benefits provided that the contract has a duration of not less than five years and the rent value is in accordance with the prices and typologies provided for in the Affordable Rental Support Program (PAA).
Five months after the approval of the first version in the Council of Ministers, the Mais Habitação program goes to a final global vote today in the Assembly of the Republic.
