Portugal’s soils law finally changed

The Portuguese government announced this week that construction may be allowed on rural land providing municipal councils involved do not object.

The decision announced by the Council of Ministers was welcomed on Thursday by the President of the Portuguese Architects Association, Avelino Oliveira and said that some of its suggestions had been included.

“It seems to us, with some due reservations that altering the land law must imply, that [the diploma] meets some of what we called for. We have an interesting coordination work ahead between the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion”, said Avelino Oliveira.

The changes to Portugal’s complicated land law (Soil Law) now paves the way for homes to be built on plots of land in rural areas in order to increase housing availability up and down the country.

The Portuguese government has recognised that building on rustic greenbelt but non-farming land is central to solving Portugal’s chronic affordable housing problem by reviewing the planning rules that dictate where housing in Portugal can be built.

This decision, announced by the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro at a press conference after approval by the Council of Ministers, is part of the Construir Portugal “Building Portugal” package, presented on May 10, which includes 30 measures to address the housing crisis in the country.

“By making the use of land more flexible by creating an exceptional regime that allows, on the decision from municipal councils, building on land where it had not been possible, namely on soils classified as rural, allows us to build more homes where it had not been possible to build before,” he said.