Portugal’s Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU) to invest €2Bn in social housing.

The government has authorised the Housing and Urban Rehabilitation Institute (IHRU) to invest €2.011Bn under its 1st Law — Support Program for Access to Housing, in order to help alleviate the housing crisis.

According to the document published this Wednesday in the republic’s circular Diário da República, this amount will be distributed over five years, with the following breakdown: €345 million in 2025, €300 million in 2026, €600 million in 2027, €500 million in 2028 and €266 million in 2029.

Housing projects completed by June 30, 2026 will receive 100% of eligible expenses, while those completed by December 31, 2026 will receive 85%. For completions by 30 June 2027, funding will be 75%, reduced to 65% for completions by 31 December 2027 and 60% for completions by 31 December 2030.

This investment comes at a time when Portugal’s affordable housing shortage continues to balloon. The municipalities have identified “more than 120,000 families in an undignified housing situation, an investment which goes far beyond the 26,000 houses initially provided for in the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), as also evidenced by the number of applications submitted until April 1, 2024 under the Housing Access Support Program, “which, together, represent 58.993 homes.

The Government is allocating an additional €845 million “to finance up to 100% of 10,000 candidate and approved homes” that will transition to the 1st Law, which is a programme that aims to support the promotion of housing solutions for people living in unworthy housing conditions and who do not have the financial capacity to bear the cost of access to adequate housing.