Government gives just two days to public Housing Package feedback

Public bodies and associations have only been given a period of 10 days of public consultation to try and decipher and digest exactly how the Portuguese government will implement its controversial Housing Package designed to alleviate Portugal’s chronic housing supply problem.

And despite the Housing Package being heavy on bullet points, slogans, soundbites, and buzzwords, the devil is in the details, and the details are extremely opaque according to the Portuguese Association of Real Estate Developers and Investors (APPII).
“Regarding the period of what they call public consultation, the APPII considers that the manner in which the public consultation period is being managed is making it impossible for any clear and informed position to be taken by the interested parties”, says the APPII.
The APPII adds that the public consultation period needs to involve a thorough and active participation of all the stakeholders involved since access to affordable housing is a serious matter that effects the Portuguese.
“Even the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo da Sousa recognised that the bunch of slogans and buzzwords presented by the Government on access to housing and other measures do not allow anyone to grasp the faintest idea of what the Government’s true intention is and the measures to resolve Portugal’s chronic housing shortage.
Representatives of public bodies, associations and representatives now have just over a week to study the proposed law which the APPII does not present any real solutions.
According to the Government, the proposed law will be approved at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers on March 16, giving the Government just two days to study the contributions sent as part of the public consultation process.
The APPII also criticises the Government’s delay in making the proposed law available which has seriously undermined the chances for those who want to make a contribution to improving the outline law.
“The APPII demands that the Housing problem in Portugal is dealt with in a serious fashion with concrete measures involving all interested parties in drawing up solutions for this national challenge” says the association’s president Hugo Santo Ferreira.

Picture: Hugo Santos Ferreira, President of the APPII – Portuguese Association of Real Estate Developers and Investors. (Photo by Joaquim Morgado)