Costa warns that in response to the housing crisis, “political will does not have a magical effect.”

This Friday, the prime minister assured the state’s involvement in responding to the housing crisis, namely by mobilizing free assets to build houses, but noted that the work takes time because “political will does not have a magical effect.”

At the presentation of the winning project for the construction of 266 public housing with affordable rent in Quinta da Baldaia, Lisbon’s Benfica district, António Costa said that this is an “example” of government intervention in housing policy, as it is the result of the mobilization of unoccupied public property with “a very large piece of land which has housed the National Veterinary Research Laboratory for decades and has been “long out of service and waiting to be occupied”.

“On time, in September last year, this contest of ideas was opened [para um projeto de habitação]mobilizing precisely the land owned by the state for the construction of public housing here, which increases the supply of housing,” the head of the executive branch said.

The prime minister said the state is “reacting positively” to the housing crisis, including the construction of houses, pointing out that this “collective challenge” “largely” depends on the partnership of municipalities, cooperatives and individuals. sector.

The winner of the competition for a new residential complex in Quinta da Baldaya was a project submitted by the company of architect Paulo David, but a public tender for the contract has not yet been announced.

According to the Institute for Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU), which is the initiator of the intervention, “the estimated cost of the construction is 43.579 million euros + VAT.” [Imposto sobre Valor Acrescentado]it is expected that IHRU’s total investment in this PRR-funded operation [Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência]is about 51.8 million euros, including the cost of land.

However, António Costa warned, “tomorrow there will be no key to deliver the house,” as building houses takes time, namely choosing a contractor, approving the Accounts Chamber, signing a contract, and doing the work.

“Time is something that political will does not eliminate. There’s an idea that political will has a magical effect, [mas] he doesn’t have. The political will only allows us to start as soon as possible,” he warned.

Considering that the presentation of the winning project for the construction of 266 houses in Quinta da Baldaia was an “important step”, the Prime Minister stressed that there are “many steps to be taken” before the distribution of houses to families and that everyone should be “informed”. these steps.”

“If we want a structured response to the housing problem, we will have to take these steps,” he said.

The official classified the PRR as “an exceptional opportunity to agree that community funds finance housing for the first time, because so far they have not financed housing investments”, having “the ability to mobilize 2,700 million euros to implement until December 31, 2026 on housing policy.”

Pointing out that the PRR calendar is “really very tight”, António Costa referred to the fact that by this date, the end of 2026, it is necessary to find “other tools of an opportunistic nature, of a temporary nature, in order to be able to mobilize all available housing stock to provide services to Portuguese families because it is a necessary condition for everyone to build their lives.”

In his speech, the Prime Minister also reviewed the history of housing construction in Portugal, noting that “the State had a very strict policy in the field of public housing until the beginning of this century, aimed at eradicating slums.”

“Today, new generations no longer have an idea of ​​what that meant. In the city of Lisbon alone, 23,000 families were resettled who lived in shacks and today, fortunately, live in decent housing. The state has done,” the official recalled. .

From that moment on, the understanding arose that between the fall in interest rates that made home loans affordable and the existence of a “rent freeze remnant” that made rent relatively cheap for families, “there was no need for a public housing policy, and for decades there was no government housing policy,” the Prime Minister stressed, appreciating the work begun in 2015 to create a new generation of state housing policy.

At the presentation of the project for Quinta da Baldaya from Lisbon, Philip Roset (PSD).