The
Lisbon Metropolitan Area has been registering great
vulnerabilities in the housing sector, mainly because, due to the large number of residents,
there is a shortage of properties on the market. Demand is constant and, for this same reason, there is no easing of average prices, with social inequalities increasing in a worrying way and, on this same topic,
the Lisbon City Council reveals that only in the last five years, within the scope of affordable rental housing programmes, it has distributed 1,100 houses, having received, in the same period, 57.6 thousand applications.
The expression of the problem begins with this statistic: it has only been possible to respond to less than 2% of the applications made to the affordable housing programmes. Since 2018, this has been a recurring pattern, as for just one property, there are around 52 applicants.
According to the city council,
an average of 3,200 applications are received per competition and the last one, in April, included a total of 64 homes in the
Avenidas Novas area. During the mandate of Fernando Medina, former mayor, 578 properties were handed over, while under Carlos Moedas, the current head of the municipality, the number fell to 532 properties.
More supply is expected in Porto
Through the
"Porto com Sentido" Programme, which includes support for accessible rentals, it was possible to allocate 192 houses and, according to the local authority,
"the promotion of accessible rentals is one of the strategic axes of the Municipality's actions with regard to housing". In this sense,
1,000 new dwellings are planned under an affordable rental regime, in a strategy that contemplates the assets of the
Oporto City Hall and the owners who express their wish to put their dwellings on the market, at controlled prices. This programme, similar in several aspects to the IHRU,
will grant tax benefits to owners.
The City Council also plans to allocate its own assets for construction or rehabilitation, specifically 180 homes.