Government creates buy and lease-back industrial and tourism property scheme

The Portuguese government is to make €50 million available to buy and then lease-back properties belonging to companies in the tourism and industrial sectors.

The aim of the scheme is to free up capital to enable companies to invest, particularly in renovating and modernising properties in what is basically a government loan scheme guaranteed by the properties.
The real estate renovation programme launched on Thursday (17 Nov) announced by the Minister of the Economy, António Costa e Silva, is called ‘Call 50| Tourism and Industry’.
The idea is that through real estate investment funds managed by Turismo Fundos, the government can acquire the properties of companies in the two sectors, and subsequently lease them back to the companies in question with long-term contracts.
According to the programme, the companies can also buy back the properties at a later date.
The aim is to free up capital that will enable the companies to restore, adapt, refurbish and modernise the properties.
The maximum amount per operation is €6 million while the acquisition price will be set at a maximum of 85% of the average value of the property after value assessment. The rent will be set at 4% on the value of the acquisition. In low-population areas this amount will fall to 2.5%.