PCP Wants to Limit Rent in New Housing Agreements

On Tuesday, the PCP introduced two bills that would include rent caps on new contracts and the removal of tax breaks for non-accustomed residents, criticizing the government’s “More Housing” package.

At a press conference in the Assembly of the Republic, PCP MP Bruno Diaz said that the proposals, which will be discussed this Friday during the More Housing debate, aim to guarantee “access to housing at prices consistent with income families”. “and ensure the ‘protection of the family home’.

Among the various proposals that the PCP will put forward for discussion, embodied in two bills and a draft resolution, Bruno Diaz singled out the creation of a “special tenant protection regime that limits the cost of new contracts”, “ensures rent”. stability” and “limits eviction situations”.

In practice, new leases will now have a maximum increase of 0.43% relative to the “Last Used Rental Value” for properties that were leased “in the previous five years”.

This special tenant protection regime provides that the situations in which landlords can terminate leases will be limited, starting, for example, with the provision that “cancellation is not allowed” with “proven lack of income”. sufficient to ensure the existence of the tenant or his family.

In case of insufficient income, the PCP proposes to eliminate the “possibility of seizing or foreclosing housing.”

On the other hand, the PCP suggests that “bank profits support higher interest rates by lowering the rate of return” generated by “mortgage-related costs and fees” and that the end of “favorable tax regimes”, in particular for non-accustomed residents .

The party proposes that public property be “provided for the provision of public housing under supported income or conditional income regimes”, but cannot be “sold to private individuals”.

Bruno Dias defended that these proposals should be “taken into account by the government and the PS”, stressing that there were already PCP initiatives such as the abolition of “golden” visas, which failed at first, and later “life itself took care of to demonstrate that they were inevitable.”

With regard to the “More housing” package, Bruno Dias believes that the government’s proposals “do not provide a complete answer to the solution of existing problems.”

“The government’s option was to give preference to those who won, and very much, on housing speculation, namely banks, real estate funds and large landowners, attributing new tax benefits to them,” Bruno Dias accused, believing that the government’s measures “do not give up housing commodification options.”

When asked if the PCP would vote against the two government bills, Bruno Diaz replied that his party would “indicate the vote in time” but added that “this is not in line with the proposal as a whole.”