The Secretary of State for Tourism, Commerce and Services, Nuno Fazenda, admitted this Saturday that the Government’s proposal for Local Accommodation, included in the More Housing program, approved this week, can be improved, like others.
“Of course it is a proposal and we have a period of public discussion. The public debate is for that very reason, it is to gather contributions, recommendations, to debate. Then there is also a parliamentary debate, in the Assembly of the Republic. improvements in this and other proposals, that’s why there is a public debate, in the sense of improving and enriching the proposal”, said Nuno Fazenda, in a joint interview with Antena 1 and Business Journalat a time when he addressed the issue of Local Accommodation (AL).
On Thursday, the Prime Minister presented a package of measures, estimated at 900 million euros, to respond to the housing crisis in Portugal with five axes: increasing the supply of properties used for housing purposes, simplifying licensing processes , increase the number of houses on the rental market, fight speculation and protect families.
Among the measures aimed at stimulating the rental market, as well as streamlining and encouraging construction, include the end of “gold” visas, the State replacing the tenant and paying rents with three months of default, the obligation to offer of fixed rate by banks in housing loans and the suspension of new licensing of local accommodation.
The Secretary of State for Tourism, Commerce and Services stressed, in the interview, the need to “ensure that there is a balance between LA and housing, because there is no tourism without residents”.
“The DNA of Tourism are the residents. And, therefore, we have to ensure a conciliation and a balance between what AL is and also housing. guarantee that it is tourism with authenticity, that there is genuine tourism, where the DNA of tourism is the residents”, he said.
The Mais Habitação programme, approved this week by the Council of Ministers, provides that the issuance of new local accommodation licenses is “prohibited”, with the exception of rural accommodation in municipalities in the interior of the country, where they can boost the local economy.
In addition, the current local accommodation licenses “will be subject to reassessment in 2030” and, thereafter, periodically, every five years.
The properties that remain in the AL will be asked to pay a special contribution, with the revenue being allocated to the IRHU (Institute for Housing and Urban Rehabilitation) to finance housing policies.
On the other hand, the State intends to attract landlords to transfer the properties they have in LA for housing.
Owners who withdraw their homes from local accommodation by the end of 2024 and place them on the housing rental market will be exempt from IRS on rents until 2030.
According to the Government, to benefit from IRS exemption on rents, owners of houses in local accommodation will have to place them on the rental market between February 2023 and until the end of 2024.
The Mais Habitação program will be under public discussion for a month. The proposals will return to the Council of Ministers for final approval, on March 16, and then some measures will still have to go through the Assembly of the Republic.