Prime Minister António Costa announced this Thursday emergency support for rents up to 200 euros per month. The Council of Ministers also approved a subsidized interest rate for loans concluded before March 15.
According to António Costa, “all families with incomes up to and including the sixth level of the IRS and who currently have an effort level with housing costs greater than 35%” are eligible for support.
Support, up to a maximum of 200 euros per month, will be paid retroactively from January of this year. The measure will be in effect for five years, the period the government estimates is needed to stabilize the housing market.
Banks will be required to have a fixed rate on home loans
The interest subsidy “is a measure that, for now, will be in effect until the end of the year and can be extended if interest rates do not normalize by then,” said António Costa.
The Prime Minister explained that the measure applies to families with income up to and including the sixth pillar of the IRS and with a 35 percent labor rate, who are eligible for loans to purchase, build or work for their own and permanent housing.
It covers loans up to a maximum of €250,000, with support being paid back to January this year with a cap of €720 per year (€60 per month).
ABOUT support will vary based on household incomeAntonio Costa said.
Families with income up to and including the 4th IRS scale will receive 75% support, and families in the 5th and 6th groups will receive 50% support.
This percentage will take into account the difference between the contracted Euribor rate and the current rate.
“This support exists whenever there is an increase of more than 3% relative to the value of the existing index at the date of the contract”, with support (50% or 75% depending on the case) applied to this differential, the prime minister explained. minister.
According to the examples given by António Costa, a family that is at IRS level 3 and has entered into a home loan with Euribor at a rate of 0.25 and currently has a rate of 3.7 will be entitled to a monthly allowance of 61 euros. .
If this is a family with a 6th income that signed a contract with Euribor at a zero rate and is now 4.5, then the support will be 88 euros per month, he pointed out.
According to the Prime Minister, this measure applies to “loans concluded until yesterday.” [15 de março]”.
Automatic income support covers 150,000 contracts
The automatic income support approved this Thursday now covers 150,000 contracts, the prime minister said, asking tenants to confirm whether landlords have declared their debt to the tax authority.
Speaking to reporters, António Costa clarified once again that the new emergency rent support of no more than 200 euros per month is for tenants with effort rates (monthly income related to the payment of rent) of more than 35% and income up to the 6th level income tax (inclusive) will be paid automatically.
He stressed that income support is a “temporary measure” that will be in place for the next five years, with the government committing to “work to ensure that the supply of public housing allows the rental market to normalize” during this period.
ABOUT support – which applies to contracts concluded before December 31, 2022 – monthlynon-refundable and corresponds to a percentage of the monthly rental value up to a limit of 60 months, which corresponds to 35% of the effort rate for the first 12 months, decreases to 40% between 13 months and 36 months and to 45%. from 37 months to 60 months.
This is a “very non-bureaucratic measure” and tenants will not need to request this support, which will be automatically assigned by the tax authorities.
“In order to be automatic, we can only work with contracts known to us,” which are currently about 150,000,” António Costa stressed.
The valuation is based on officially registered lease agreements, the Prime Minister recalled, emphasizing the importance of tenants confirming that landlords have registered them with the tax authority.
While the Decree Law providing for Emergency Rent Support also provides for the extension of Porta 65, the Rent Support Program for Youth, the Prime Minister did not provide further details as it is “related to the rent regime that will come to be worked out” and approved on Council of Ministers on the 30th.
The diploma provides for the extension of the Porta 65 program to single-parent families and situations where income falls by more than 20% compared to income in the previous month or the same period of the previous year, without knowing how many people will be covered.
Rent and interest support is 460 million euros.
“At the moment, our estimate of this support package is around 460 million euros,” the Prime Minister said, and this amount already includes some adjustments made to these measures compared to the version approved a month ago.
We are talking about supporting families whose income effort level exceeds 35%, as well as supporting those who have a loan to buy or build a house to compensate for the efforts to pay off loans due to higher interest rates.
In case of interest, covered loan agreements up to 250 thousand euroswhen the initial version was 200 thousand.
In the version of the More Housing program approved on February 16, the government estimated the cost of the package of measures at 900 million euros, including all measures with tax incentives, which will not be approved by the government until March 30. This global value should now be adjusted.
The government will introduce new measures to support the economy next week
The Prime Minister also said that next week the Council of Ministers will adopt measures to support the family and the economy, which will be presented on Friday and “calibrated against the final execution data of the 2022 budget.”
“As for other non-housing support, next week the Council of Ministers will adopt measures that will be presented on Friday and will be calibrated according to the final performance data for the 2022 budget,” António Costa said at a press conference after the meeting Council of Ministers in Lisbon.
The Prime Minister stressed that the “final version” of these measures “depends” on the data on the implementation of the 2022 budget, which will be known next week.
António Costa was also asked about PSD’s housing proposals, which were approved on Wednesday due to PS abstention (four bills and a resolution), which include measures such as licensing flexibility, rent support, government guarantees to help purchases more young people and general tax incentives in this sector.
Costa said he saw with “great satisfaction” that the Socialist Party’s parliamentary group “abstained, making these initiatives viable” so that they could move to the special stage.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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