The Liberal Initiative (IL) will present a proposal in parliament this week that would allow private parties to buy and return vacant public buildings and place them on the affordable rental market, party chairman Rui Rocha said on Tuesday.
The goal is to use the free assets of the state and provide affordable housing for a certain period of years, the liberal said, speaking to reporters in Porto.
In front of the old Military Recruitment Office building, next to the Rotunda da Boavista, which has been empty for years, Rui Rocha said the state has thousands of similar facilities across the country.
“This building is empty. Now people can live here, and therefore it is unacceptable that the state launches a violent attack on private property, as it did with the “More housing” package presented by the government a few days ago, without knowing what you have in advance,” he said.
In his opinion, the state should “take care of its own things first”, and if it does not, then let the private sector do it.
It is situations like these that gave rise to this legislative initiative, which Rui Rocha called “subversive”.
“The goal is for individuals facing similar situations to submit proposals for the restoration of these spaces and commit themselves to making them accessible to the public in terms of available income for a certain period of time, and then, fulfilling all the assumptions of this proposal can restore full ownership of these objects,” he explained.
Rui Rocha considered the housing problem “serious”, although he warned that Prime Minister António Costa could not, after seven years, “make housing promises and not keep them” and now present the Portuguese with “aggression” on the principle of property and local residence.
After announcing this proposal, the liberal went to a local apartment building on Rua das Flores, one of the busiest in the city of Porto, where he went by tuk-tuk.
On the 17th, António Costa unveiled the Mais Habitação package to respond to the housing crisis in Portugal with five areas of action: increasing the supply of real estate used for housing purposes, simplifying licensing processes, increasing the number of houses on the rental market, combating speculation and protect families.
According to the Prime Minister, for example, the issuance of new local housing licenses “will be prohibited”, except for rural housing in municipalities in the interior of the country, where they can stimulate the local economy. Current licenses “will be subject to re-evaluation in 2030” and periodically every five years thereafter.
The Mais Habitação program will be discussed by the public 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 pass through the Assembly of the Republic.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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