At the end of an extraordinary Council of Ministers, the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, announced that the executive would put an end to the coercive leasing provided for in the Mais Habitação program, of the previous socialist Government, which he had already announced his intention to revoke.

“This is a new regime, in which the local-based initiative makes it possible to accelerate, identify and make, after recovery, available, whether for housing or for other relevant public purposes, so many hundreds of public properties in the State that are currently idle, while there are so many people without homes or homes that are too expensive”, said the minister.

Leitão Amaro revealed that it would be up to municipalities to “voluntarily”, by themselves or with private developers, identify vacant or underused public properties and then present to the State, namely through Estamo, a project of use “for a public purpose that fits within of the municipality’s responsibilities and can be put to fruition by people”.

The government official highlighted that this “green path” for local authorities is voluntary and each project designed “must be within the responsibilities” of the municipality and be directed towards a public purpose.

“Therefore, if we want to anticipate the question, it is not suitable for real estate speculation or for creating luxury housing, because this is clearly not a destination that falls within the municipalities’ responsibilities”, he highlighted.

If the management of the proposed properties falls to Estamo, it can only object if the project presented by the municipality does not meet the public interest or if there is already an imminent public project for that property.

The new regime, a locally based initiative, makes it possible to accelerate the use of thousands of public properties in the State that are currently unused for public housing or other projects, he added.

“Affordable housing will naturally be preferred and the main of these intended uses, financed with the resources of the project itself. This does not eliminate in the slightest the State's responsibility for injecting public properties into the market, nor for resolving a housing crisis that has worsened for years followed by wrong or unimplemented policies”, he highlighted.