It will implement 30 measures to face the crisis and has committed to deadlines ranging from ten days to three months. With the “Build Portugal” plan, Luís Montenegro's Executive intends to encourage the supply of housing; promote public housing; restore trust to all stakeholders; promote youth housing, and ensure housing accessibility.

Plans for the new Government include moving forward with measures such as the unlocking of 25,000 homes that are part of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR); the change in the Soil Law, which will allow the use of rustic land for sustainable housing solutions, housing at controlled costs, and the provision of houses for teachers, security forces, agricultural and industrial workers and tourism sector workers.

There is also good news for young property buyers, as the new strategy for housing provides, for example, exemption from IMT and Stamp Tax for young people up to the age of 35 on properties up to 316 thousand euros (value corresponding to the fourth step of the IMT).

When presenting the program, the Prime Minister assured that the new housing strategy aims to “restore the confidence” of the Portuguese, contrary to the program of the previous socialist Government, which “was still in its infancy and had already been condemned to failure”.

Despite recognising that there are well-designed measures in the controversial More Housing and that they are intended to continue, Montenegro is moving forward with the repeal of forced leasing, as well as the Extraordinary Contribution on Local Accommodation.

For the leader of the AD Government, transformation in the housing area requires a commitment from everyone. He guaranteed that he would speak with all parliamentary groups, highlighting at the same time the role of municipalities, associations, and cooperatives in implementing this new strategy.

The 30 measures to solve the housing crisis

In the “Build Portugal” program, the new Government says that “little or nothing has been done in the last 20 years” to resolve the housing supply crisis that “has fuelled a worrying division in our society”, turning tenants against landlords and tourism against cities.

The AD Executive recognises that this is a “generational challenge” that cannot only be resolved in the short term, but that “requires an immediate response”. To this end, he prepared a new housing strategy that includes 30 measures, spread across six areas of activity.

Encourage the offer

  • Provision of public housing properties (build to rent) with affordable rent/price, under a Public-Private Partnership regime (90 days);
  • Semi-automatic legal regime for the use of vacant or underused public properties through a case-by-case presentation of a housing project, to be carried out by municipalities and, if necessary, with private partners (10 days);
  • Amendment of the land law to allow the use of rustic land for sustainable housing solutions (at controlled costs, for affordable rental, for temporary accommodation or offer for function houses for teachers, security forces, agricultural and industrial workers and the tourism sector (60 days);
  • Creation of construction bonuses to increase urban density indexes and limits in cost-controlled housing projects, affordable rentals or temporary accommodation (90 days);
  • New urban centers surrounding areas of urban pressure, with sustainable urban plans and in coordination with transport provision (study in 120 days);
  • State guarantee on credit for the construction of cooperatives with delivery of public land (90 days);
  • Lines of credit to promote build to rent (60 days);
  • Pact with sector agents to increase construction capacity, involving stability of production capacity, industrialization of the process, and attraction and qualification of resident labor;
  • Reduction of VAT to the minimum rate of 6% for rehabilitation works and housing construction, with limits depending on prices (until the end of the legislature);


Promoting public housing

  • Unblocking 25,000 houses from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) with the adoption of a liability term from municipal councils, in order to speed up processes (10 days);
  • Reinforcement of financing to enable the development of thousands of other candidate homes, but not financed in the PRR (30 days);
  • Strengthen the promotion capacity of the IHRU, through EPE Public Construction (formerly School Park), in carrying out the Affordable Rental Program buildings (10 days);


Return confidence in leasing

  • Revocation of forced tenancy, respecting property rights (10 days);
  • Revocation of the Mais Habitação measure guaranteeing and replacing the State as tenant (30 days);
  • Correction of the distortions introduced to the Urban Rental Regime in the last eight years to restore flexibility and confidence to the rental market (appoint a working group);
  • Creation of the investment contract for build to rent and available to let;


Legislative simplification

  • Enable the creation of one or more insurance contracts through a provider other than the lender's preference, promoting healthy competition in the market;
  • Review of the Urbanistic Simplex, with regulation, deepening and improvement of legislation to reduce bureaucracy and urbanistic administrative simplification (90 days);
  • Approve the Construction Code;
  • Implementation of the use of the BIM (Building Information Modeling) methodology and bringing municipal licensing platforms closer to the interface with economic agents (120 days);
  • Adapt the concept of controlled costs and affordable income to reflect the affordable housing segment in each location and moment, generating greater predictability and longevity in the market (120 days);
  • Revocation of the Extraordinary Contribution on Local Accommodation (CEAL), the expiry of the license and transferability, and the change to the aging coefficient, decentralizing regulation to the municipalities (10 days);
  • Creation of the IHRU (Housing and Urban Rehabilitation Institute) Portal to monitor application processes with the aim of reinforcing transparency (120 days);


Promote young housing

  • Public guarantee for young people to enable bank financing when purchasing their first home (15 days);
  • Exemption from IMT and Stamp Tax on the purchase of the first home for young people up to the age of 35 on properties up to the 4th IMT bracket, that is, up to 316 thousand euros (15 days);
  • Reformulation of the Porta 65 rental support program, to “put young people’s economic reality first”, putting an end to exclusions based on rent limits (15 days);
  • Emergency Program for Student Accommodation (15 days):
  • Implementation of the “National Accommodation Plan 2025-26” for students, with the offer of an additional 18 thousand beds (30 days);


Ensuring accessibility to housing

  • Streamlining income subsidy programs, eliminating restrictions, particularly on expiries (30 days);

  • Creation of a transition regulation between supported income and affordable income, in order to ensure that there are no discontinuities in support (120 days).