Developers’ association welcomes new Housing Ministry

The Portuguese Association of Real Estate Investors and Developers has welcomed the Government’s decision to create a Ministry of Housing.

The APPII says it shows that the Government is finally putting Portugal’s housing problems — the main one being a lack of affordable housing for the middle and lower middle classes — at the top of its agenda.
The decision to create a new ministry dedicated to Housing was announced on Monday, January 2.
“The decision to create a ministry of Housing at such a crucial time for the country is a recognition by this government of the importance of housing for the country and particularly for the Portuguese.
The APPII believes that with this important step, the government can quickly achieve concrete measures to resolve Portugal’s chronic housing shortage in the non luxury segments of the housing market and initiate affordable housing policies.
“Now is the time to implement solutions that have already been identified in the recent past, and resolve them. The APPII as a member of the National Housing Council continues to be open to carrying on the positive work that we began with the then Secretary of State for Housing, Marina Gonçalves”, says Hugo Santos Ferreira, President of the APPII.
Marina Gonçalves is now the Minister of Housing while the Minister of Infrastructure is now João Galamba who had been Secretary of State for Energy. The former Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure was split last week into two separate ministries after the sudden resignation of Pedro Nuno Santos as the Minister of Housing and Infrastructure over the TAP debacle.
Nuno Santos had decided to fall on his sword by accepting “political responsibility” over the “compensation” and untaken holiday pay scandal involving the ex-Secretary of State for the Treasury, Alexandra Reis who had resigned weeks before from the board of airline TAP. She had walked away with a golden handshake worth €500,000 after less than two years in the job causing a national outcry.