Environment minister to open Lisbon Urban Rehabilitation Week

Portugal’s Environment minister, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, will open Lisbon Urban Rehabilitation Week on 11 May.

The minister will use his speech at the launch of the week-long event to present the government’s Recovery and Resilience and Investing in Urban Rehabilitation Plan and will inform sector professionals of the potential and opportunities outlined in this strategic document on how European Union ‘bazooka’ funding can be applied to boost post-Covid-19 economic recovery.
The event’s opening ceremony will also include the presence of the Mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina, as well as a speech from the president of the CPCI – Portuguese Confederation of Construction and Real Estate, Gonçalo Salazar Leite who is expected to outline the main concerns of the confederation’s members regarding the construction industry in Portugal.
The session will be closed with a round table discussion with representatives of the CPCI, APEMIP (Portuguese Association of Estate Agents and Real Estate Professionals), Engineers Association, ADENE (Agency for Energy) and Lisbon City Council (CML) as well as the Portal for Sustainable Construction whose representatives will debate the latest trends and challenges within the scope of the Recovery and Resilience Plan.
The RRP has around €14Bn in funds from Brussels which must be applied by 2026 in projects focusing on housing for the Portuguese middle class, and energy transition away from fossil fuels to green energy sources, and which are two of the main pillars of government policy for the application of these funds.
Urban Rehabilitation is viewed as the main driver by which some of the measures outlined in the plan can be achieved regarding the real estate sector.
According to the RRP, the government has pledged to invest around €2.7Bn in public housing projects over the next five years. From this amount, the lion’s share of €1.6Bn in a special fund will be earmarked for the Programa 1º Direito (Top Priority Program) which will have €1.2Bn to help around 26,000 families to access housing over the next few years.
There is also the Temporary and Urgent Accommodation Grant which contains around €186 million as well as funding aimed at the autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores.
The remaining funds in the RRP (€1.1Bn) will go towards financing the construction of subsidised social housing for rent for around 6,800 families (€774 million) and the development of 15,000 new student accommodation with 15,000 new beds (€375 million).