A Bloco de Esquerda (BE) coordinator this Saturday defended imposing caps on rent increases for 2024, arguing that the government has admitted its incompetence in housing, which is “the biggest problem” for people.
“This request for help from the European Commission leads to the fact that the government finally admits its incompetence in solving the housing problem,” says Mariana Mortagua.
The BE coordinator stated that “The European Commission will not land in Portel to come to Portugal to control rents or to complete the work that the state and the government promised to do, the construction of inns and did not carry out.” “.
In his opinion, “the government and António Costa (…) are obliged to fulfill their promises”, and “solving the housing crisis is the responsibility of António Costa”.
Mariana Mortagua spoke to reporters in Viseu, where she visited the Manufacturing Market to find out the reality and prepare the Forum of Socialism dedicated to the rent of BE, scheduled in the “city of Viriato” from 8 to 10 September.
The blogger put forward proposals that the party will put forward, including that “rent growth in 2024 will be frozen at the level it was in 2021 until inflation spikes.”
The increase should apply “not only to existing contracts and their extensions, but also to new contracts,” he said, acknowledging that the measure “by itself will not solve the housing problem, but can provide a minimum of stability.” “People for the future.
“Housing is the biggest problem that people face at the moment,” says Mariana Mortagua, not only because of rising interest rates, but also because of “difficulties in finding a home, both to buy and to buy. lease.”
In his opinion, “there are one, two generations of people who cannot leave their parental home and cannot have life plans, and housing makes up half, more than half, and sometimes almost the entire family budget.”
In this sense, he argued that “to take very strong action, it takes determination not only to contain prices, but to bring them down”, and BE has “two significant proposals” to make this happen.
“Decrease in interest rates on housing loans. We cannot tolerate banks making millions in profits at the cost of the lives of so many people who cannot repay their loans (…) and banks should be forced to lower interest rates in exchange for their own profits,” he suggested.
The second measure involves “rent control by setting rent limits, reasonable ceilings appropriate to the area of the city, the typology and size of the houses”, since “800 euros per house in Viseu are not available”, It is said taking into account the purchasing power of the region.
“Just like it’s impossible to pay 1,500 euros for a house in Lisbon, because the salaries don’t cover this rent, and therefore the rent has to be paid. These are two simple measures that can be applied now,” he said.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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