BE accuses PS of ‘exacerbating problem’ in housing by failing to take action

This Sunday, the BE co-ordinator blamed the PS for “worsening the problem” in housing, asking the “social majority” to step up next Saturday for proposals such as banning the sale of houses to non-residents.

“PS not only did not solve the problem [da habitação]“because it irresponsibly aggravated the problem by making statements that it then failed to implement,” criticized Mariana Mortagua in statements to the Lusa agency in Alameda, in Lisbon, where BE opened a new “billboard” this week with the message: “No selling at home from out of town, radical? It’s radical that wages don’t reach home.”

The BE coordinator cited the example of the “More Housing” program confirmed this Friday in Parliament, considering that it was “a set of measures that turned out to be perverse” because they were announced but not yet implemented.

“The government decided to announce that it would cap rent increases on new contracts, but did not implement this immediately: it made the announcement in February 2023 and the measure has not yet come into force. “As a result, new contracts rose by more than 10% as landlords anticipated the freeze,” he said.

Similarly, Mariana Mortagua criticized the announcement of the abolition of golden visas, noting that after the announcement, requests for this type of visa “skyrocketed by 50% in Lisbon and more than 200% in Porto.”

According to the BE Coordinator, “This means that the government’s own announcement that it would abolish golden visas, but not abolish golden visas, has created a frenzy around visas.”

“There are measures that cannot be announced in time; they must come into force immediately,” he said.

Given this scenario, Mariana Mortagua said she hopes that at the demonstration called by the Casa para Viver movement next Saturday, a “social majority” will express support for BE’s housing proposals, such as the ban on home sales. houses for non-residents.

The leader of the bloc noted that this measure was adopted in Canada, “where the government is liberal,” and is justified by statistics from the Bank of Portugal, according to which 1.7 out of every ten euros of real estate transactions are made by non-residents. Plus the fact that “homes bought by non-residents are 95% more expensive than those bought by residents.”

“This means that the Bank of Portugal wrote in its 2022 report that non-residents are inflating house prices because they have much more income available,” he said, adding that the phenomenon is having a particular impact in Lisbon and Porto.

Along with this proposal, BE is also advocating for rent caps “defined in each location and for each type of property at a fair value but compatible with wages.”

Regarding bank installment plans, the party proposes to limit the increase in the loan rate to 2% between the value that existed before the increase in interest rates and the current one, on pain that the bank will be forced to renegotiate the terms of the loan. .

“We are confident that most people agree with these proposals because they see their effect every day: every time they look at a beautiful building where they could have a home to live in, they know that this house is not for your pocket , and never will be,” he said.

Mariana Mortagua argued that the Portuguese were not “destined to be spectators of the city” and “people with income in Portugal should be able to buy and rent houses in Portugal.”

“The right to housing must be a priority and we believe it is this majority that will take to the streets on September 30 to fight for proposals that will make a difference,” he said.